Philippines Trade Gap Narrows in April

2025-05-30 01:19 By Joshua Ferrer 1 min. read

The Philippines’ trade deficit narrowed to USD 3.5 billion in April 2025 from USD 4.7 billion in the same month last year, as exports rose while imports fell.

Year-on-year, exports climbed by 7% to USD 6.7 billion, driven by higher sales of other manufactured goods (143.8%), metal components (26.9%), and bananas (25.4%).

The US accounted for the largest share of exports (15.9%), followed by Japan (13.2%), Hong Kong (13.2%), and China (10.4%).

Meanwhile, imports dropped by 7.2% to USD 10.2 billion, mainly due to reduced purchases of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (-35.1%), iron and steel (-25.3%), and cereals and cereal preparations (-17.8%).

China remained the top import source, accounting for 28.2% of total imports, followed by Japan (8.3%), Indonesia (8%), and South Korea (7.4%).

Considering the first four months of the year, the trade deficit slightly decreased to USD 15.9 billion , compared to USD 16 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year.



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