Philippine Trade Gap Narrows In February

(RTTNews) - The Philippine foreign trade deficit decreased in February from a year ago as exports grew more rapidly than imports, preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed on Thursday.

The trade deficit dropped to $3.65 billion in February from $3.88 billion in the same month last year. In January, the shortfall was $4.39 billion.

Exports surged 15.7 percent year-on-year in February, faster than the 9.1 percent strong recovery in the previous month. Moreover, this was the strongest growth in sixteen months.

By commodity group, electronic products continued to be the country's top exports in February, accounting for 57.9 percent of the total outflows during the period, the agency said. 

Imports rose 6.3 percent annually in February, reversing a 6.1 percent decrease in January.