Trade gap shrinks to $3.49 billion in April

The Philippines' trade deficit in goods narrowed to its two-month low in April, as imports contracted to its lowest in 13 months, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Friday.

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Preliminary data from the PSA showed the country's trade-in-goods balance - the difference between the values of exports and imports reached a deficit of $3.49 billion in April from the $4.51-billion deficit in March and the $4.73 billion gap a year earlier.

It was the slimmest trade gap in two months or since the revised $2.91-billion deficit in February.

The country's trade balance has been in deficit for nearly a decade or since the $64.95-million surplus recorded in May 2015.

The narrower April deficit was due to a big pullback in imports while exports remained broadly healthy, Pantheon Macroeconomics Chief Emerging Asia Economist Miguel Chanco said in an e-mail adding that this trend in the deficit is encouraging.

"The narrowing trade deficit suggests a more muted demand for dollars as imports contract, which in turn is positive for the peso," Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa, chief economist at Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., said in an e-mail.

He added that exports rose on a stark pickup in agro-based exports, in particular outbound shipments of coconut oil and related products while imports slowed due to a contraction in both raw materials and energy imports.

Total outbound sales of Philippine-made goods grew by 7% year on year in April, slower than the 8.7% growth in March and the 28.2% expansion a year earlier.

It was the slowest pace for exports in four months or since the 1.9% decline in December 2024.

By value, April logged the lowest level in three months since the $6.57 billion in January.