High rice, oil prices push up March imports by 12%

MANILA, Philippines- High oil and cereal prices pushed the country's import bill to grow 12.1 percent in March, the National Statistics Office said Monday.In its latest data release, the NSO said this is the fifth-straight month of double-digit growth for imports.Imports rose to $5.121 billion in March, bringing the import bill for the first three months of the year to grow 20.1 percent to $14.606 billion.This also resulted in a March trade deficit of $928 million as exports for the period were recorded at $4.193 billion.The trade deficit for the first quarter of the year widened to $2.070 billion during the period. Electronics, which accounted for 36.8 percent of the total import bill, rose 16.8 percent to $1.883 billion in March. Among the major groups of electronic products, components/devices (Semiconductors) had the biggest share of 28.5 percent, down by 20.4 percent to $1.462 billion from $1.837 billion in March 2007.Purchases of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials in March followed with a 22.8 percent share and posted a positive growth of 87.1 percent to $1.169 billion over the previous year's level of $625.02 million.The country's rice import in March surged 404.43 percent to $90.65 million from $17.97 million in the same period last year.Unmilled cereals excluding rice and corn imports during the period went up rose 139.69 percent to $810 million from $338 million in the same period last year.Singapore was the biggest source of imports in March wit with a 13.4 percent share of the total import bill or an increase of 29.7 percent to $686.35 million.The United States of America was the second largest source of imports with a 13.3 percent share, recording payments worth $683.41 million or a decline of 13.2 percent from $786.93 million in March 2007.Japan followed with $556.86 million, down by 5.7 percent from $590.72 million during the same month in 2007. -


SOURCE: GMANews.TV