THE country missed its merchandise trade goals last year as data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed both exports and imports contracted between January and December 2023.
The PSA data showed exports contracted 7.6 percent to $73.52 billion while imports declined 8.2 percent to $125.95 billion in 2023.
In December 2023, the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) set the country’s good export target at a contraction of 4 percent, while imports were targeted to decline by 3 percent.
“External trade data slowed down amid mostly softer global economic data recently, especially manufacturing and services gauges in major global economies,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said.
“Still relatively higher prices/inflation also partly slowed down on global/external trade and investments activities, both for new investments and expansion projects,” he added.
In December 2023, the country’s total external trade in goods amounted to $15.57 billion, a decline of 3.5 percent from the $16.13 billion total external trade in the same period of the previous year.
The country’s total exports in the last month of 2023 contracted 0.5 percent to $5.78 billion, while imports declined 5.1 percent to $9.79 billion during the period.
The country’s balance of trade in goods (BoT-G) is the difference between the value of exports and imports. The BoT-G in December 2023 amounted to USD -4.01 billion, indicating a trade deficit with an annual decrease of 11 percent.
GDP growth
In a briefing in Malacañang, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan alluded to some of the country’s external challenges that could pose a threat to the country’s overall growth in 2024.
These challenges are among those Ricafort cited, that affected the country’s external trade performance this year.
These risks, Balisacan said, include the weak state of the global economy and the still-ongoing geopolitical tensions.
Balisacan also listed domestic inflation among one of the risks faced by the economy this year as the country needs to address certain sectors such as the high food inflation.
Nonetheless, Balisacan said a full-year GDP growth rate of 6.5 to 7.5 percent to generate economic opportunities, increase employment, raise per capita incomes, and elevate our economy to “upper-middle-income-country” status is possible by 2025.
“This growth will be supported by low and manageable inflation, a labor force with access to more and better jobs, a stronger fiscal position in the form of a lower deficit and debt as a share of gross domestic product, and an increasingly dynamic, innovative, and competitive economy,” Balisacan said.
On Friday, Balisacan said the Philippine Development Report, or PDR 2023, was presented to the President and members of the Cabinet.
The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028, the country’s medium-term development roadmap, was launched.
In line with Executive Order No. 14, s. 2023, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) monitored the Plan’s implementation, with inputs from various government agencies. A year after the launch, we produced the Philippine Development Report.
The PDR contains updates on the major programs, projects, and policies implemented in 2023. As an evidence-based report, the PDR evaluates our country’s performance based on the outcome indicators identified in the PDP and tracks the progress of bills under the Marcos administration’s legislative agenda.
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