Total Philippine merchandise imports in October this year reflected the more upbeat sentiments of both business and consumers as it went up by 4.3 percent to $5.240 billion, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said on Friday.

Data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed that October imports were higher than $5.024 billion recorded in the same month of 2011.

The NSO attributed the overall growth of import payments from the higher purchases of goods such as metalliferous ores and metal scrap, cereals and cereal preparations, transport equipment, telecommunication, equipment and electrical machinery, electronic products and industrial machinery and equipment.

Month-on-month, October imports slightly went down by 0.5 percent compared to previous month’s level of $5.266 billion.

Meanwhile, the data showed that imports for the first 10 months of the year slightly increased by 0.9 percent to $51.275 billion from $50.839 billion for the same period in 2011.

It added that electronic products, which shared 25.7 percent of the aggregate import bill, rose by 8.7 percent to $1.345 billion reported value from $1.237 billion in October 2011.

However, compared to previous month, higher purchases of semiconductors at 4.2 percent was registered, which offset the decline of electronic products at 1 percent.

NSO data further showed that imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials ranked second among the top 10 imports with 20.5 percent share to total imports registering an annual growth rate decrease of 7.5 percent from $1.159 billion in October 2011 to $1.073 billion.

Transport equipment was the country’s third top import for the month with 7.8 percent share to total imports valued at $410 million from $337.60 million of the same month a year ago.

Rounding up the list of the top 10 imports for September 2012 were industrial machinery and equipment amounting to $277.98 million; metalliferous ores and metal scrap, $222.93 million; cereals and cereal preparations, $187.67 million; iron and steel, $125.51 billion; organic and inorganic chemicals, $120.54 million; plastics in primary and non-primary forms, $115.39 million; and telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery, $108.31 million.

Aggregate payment for the country’s top 10 imports for October 2012 reached $3.986 billion, or 76.1 percent of the total import bill.

“The higher importation of capital goods, raw materials and intermediate goods was partly due to the anticipated increase in volume of production on account of improved orders and projects as well as the expansion of businesses and new product lines,” according to Socioeconomic Planning  Secretary and NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan.

Balisacan added that these expansion plans, on the other hand, are backed by the country’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals.

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On the other hand, the United States emerged as the country’s biggest source of imports in October 2012 with 11.5 percent share. Payments were recorded at $603.96 million, an increase of 22.3 percent from $493.70 million in October 2011.  

China was the second top source of imports with 11.3 percent share to the total import bill amounting to $589.97 million, higher by 23.3 percent from $478.43 million in October 2011.

Japan came in third, accounting for 9.9 percent share of the total import bill in October 2012 with negative growth of 14.6 percent from $607.45 million to $518.91 million.

Other major sources of imports for the month of October 2012 were Taiwan, $516.36 million; South Korea, $353.83 million; Thailand, $318.60 million; Singapore, $307.50 million; United Arab Emirates, $267.34 million; Indonesia, $265.76 million; and Saudi Arabia, $248.80 million.

Payments for imports from the top 10 sources for October 2012 amounted to $3.991 billion, or 76.2 percent of the total.