MANILA, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' total trade reached 16.43 billion U.S. dollars in October 2018, a 14 percent increase from 14.41 billion U.S. dollars recorded in October 2017, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.
The PSA said the total exports were valued at 6.11 billion U.S. dollars in October 2018, an increase of 3.4 percent from 5.91 billion U.S. dollars in October 2017.
On the other hand, the PSA said total imports rose to 10.32 billion U.S. dollars in October 2018, from 8.50 billion U.S. dollars in October 2017 or a growth rate of 21.4 percent.
Furthermore, the PSA said the Philippines' balance of trade in goods increased to a 4.21 billion U.S. dollar deficit in October 2018, from 2.59 billion U.S. dollars of deficit in October 2017.
The Philippine National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) stressed the need for the government to stay the course and be bolder in supporting the country's key and emerging exports sectors to boost overall trade growth.
"With export growth unlikely to pick up the pace in the near term and imports to continue to expand, stronger support must be given to key and emerging exports sectors in the country," the Philippine Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.
He added that implementing strategies in the Philippine Export Development Plan 2018-2022 becomes imperative especially for the electronics, processed food and beverage, and vegetable sectors.
China was the Philippines' biggest supplier of imports and third largest export destination in October 2018, according to the PSA.
