Philippine Trade Deficit Narrows In January

(RTTNews) - The Philippine foreign trade deficit decreased in January from a year ago as exports surged amid a fall in imports, preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed on Tuesday.

The trade deficit dropped to $4.22 billion in January from $5.56 billion in the same month last year. In December, the shortfall was $4.18 billion.

Exports grew 9.1 percent year-on-year in January, reversing the 0.5 percent decline in the previous month.

By commodity group, electronic products continued to be the country's top exports in January, accounting for 58.2 percent of the total outflows during the period, the agency said. 

Imports fell 7.6 percent annually in January, faster than the 3.5 percent decrease in the previous month.