The Philippines recorded a trade surplus in March following a deficit in the previous month, as exports rebounded and imports unexpectedly fell, a preliminary report from the National Statistics Office showed Monday.
The trade surplus came in at $264 million in March following a revised deficit of $837 million in the previous month. Economists had expected the deficit to shrink to $409 million.
In the same month of the previous year, the shortfall was $217 million.
Imports decreased 6.8 percent year-over-year in March, partly reversing a 10.2 percent rise in February. Economists had expected imports to increase by 5.5 percent.
The negative performance was primarily due to the decline in imports of mineral fuels and plastics. However,imports of electronic products, which accounted for 24.9 percent of the total imports, expanded by 5.4 percent.
China remained the country’s biggest source of imports, with a 12 percent share in March, followed by the U.S. with a 10.7 percent share and Japan came third contributing 8.7 percent to the imports.
Export data released two weeks ago showed that total exports increased in March following three consecutive months of decreases. Exports amounted to $5.38 billion by virtue of its 2.1 percent increase. In February, exports had declined 3 percent.
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