MANILA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' total external trade in goods continued to fall for the third consecutive month in June, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Wednesday.
The PSA said in a monthly report that total merchandise trade contracted by 5.8 percent in June to 14.49 billion U.S. dollars from the 15.39 billion U.S. dollars of external trade recorded in June 2018.
The country's total external trade in goods this April decreased by 1.0 percent from the same month of the previous year and in May the number went down by 3.0 percent year on year.
Of the total external trade this June, the PSA said 6.01 billion U.S. dollars, or 41.5 percent, were exported goods and 8.48 billion U.S. dollars, or 58.5 percent, were imported goods.
The Philippines' balance of trade in goods decreased to 2.47 billion U.S. dollars deficit in June, from 3.55 billion U.S. dollars deficit in June 2018, the PSA added.
The Philippine National Economic and Development Authority said imports continued its downward trend for three consecutive months now, with raw material and intermediate good, and consumer goods posting the biggest decline at 16.5 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively.
The moderate recovery of exports, on the other hand, continued for the third consecutive month.
The Philippine Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia attributed the external trade slowdown in part to the challenging external environment and global uncertainties.
Although the Philippines' recent decline in external trade performance, the government said earlier that imports and exports of goods will be better in the second half of 2019 due to the country's economic outlook remaining positive for the year.
