MANILA, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' total external trade in goods amounted to 13.14 billion U.S. dollars in February, up 1.2 percent year-on-year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday.
This growth was driven mainly by imports which grew by 2.6 percent, but tempered by the 0.9 percent decline in exports, the PSA said.
Of the total external trade, the PSA said 5.18 billion U.S. dollars, or 39.4 percent, were exported goods and 7.97 billion U.S. dollars, or 60.6 percent, were imported goods.
China was the country's biggest supplier of imported goods with 20.3 percent share to total imports in February, the PSA said.
The PSA said import payments from the top 10 countries reached 6.06 billion U.S. dollars, or a share of 76.0 percent, to the total imports in February.
Japan ranked second, with 10.8 percent or an import value of 859.65 million U.S. dollars in the month, the PSA said, adding this recorded an increase of 7.2 percent year-on-year.
South Korea placed third with an import value of 657.05 million U.S. dollars, or a share of 8.3 percent. "Imports from this country dropped by 13.8 percent, from 762.47 million U.S. dollars in February 2018," the PSA said.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has said the Philippine government remains firm in improving relations with trading partners to weather headwinds in the global export market.
