By PNA and U.S. News Agency / Asian

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the continuing price increases in electronic and petroleum products led to
higher imports payments.

These increases in import value due to rising
prices, however, are expected to be short-term.

“Tight supply in electronics, brought about by logistical and infrastructure challenges in Japan may increase prices in the sector, and high prices will eventually weigh down demand,” Socioeconomic Planning
Secretary and NEDA Director General Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. said.

“Despite the 63.1 percent decline in shipping volume, import value of materials and accessories for the manufacture of electric equipment increased by 79.3 percent mainly due to price increases,” he added.

“The decline in volume of shipments indicates that there are risks to the performance of the technology sector in the coming months as growth has been mainly supported by price effects,” Paderanga said.

The NEDA chief made this statement after the National Statistics Office released its February 2011 Philippine imports data. Import payments for the said month amounted to US$ 4.7 billion, up by 20.1 percent.

The February 2011 imports performance was lower than the 27.6 percent imports rise recorded in the same month a year ago.

The trade deficit for the first two months of 2011 is valued at US$ 2.1 billion, higher than the US$ 1.0 billion shortfall recorded during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the value of inward shipments of petroleum crude rose by 140.6 percent compared to the same month last year due to increases in both volume and prices of crude oil.

“Oil prices continued to surge due to mounting anxiety over political tensions in the Middle East and North Africa,” Paderanga said.

The price of Dubai crude oil averaged US$ 100.2/bbl in February 2011 from only US$ 74.5/bbl a year ago.

Moderating growth in imports of capital goods declined by 17.8 percent because of decreasing payments for telecommunication equipment and electrical machines (-30.4 percent) and office & EDP machines (-47.6 percent).

The decline may be traced to falling prices as the volume of shipments for the two sub-commodity groups increased by 21.7 percent and 3.9 percent,
respectively.

Rice imports dropped by 99.1 percent as shipments went down to 3.3 million gross kilos in February 2011 from 364.2 million gross kilos in 12 months ago.

“An increase in rice imports, however, may be observed in March and April 2011 as the National Food Authority finalized the importation of 187,000 metric tons of rice for calendar year 2011 on 15 April 2011,” Paderanga
said.

In terms of origin, Japan was the top supplier of Philippine imports for February with an 11.2 percent share.
Following Japan were the United States
(10.7 percent), Singapore (9.8 percent), South Korea (9.4 percent), and China (7.8 percent).

The majority of the goods from these countries were raw materials for the manufacture of electrical equipment and capital goods, namely telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery, and power generating
and specialized machines.

The double-digit import performance of the Philippines followed those of its Asian neighbors.

Top gainers in terms of imports within the region were
Indonesia (26.3 percent), Hong Kong SAR (25.2 percent), and China (19.5 percent).