Imports rose 6.6% in June to end 6-month skid

Imports rose 6.6 percent year-on-year to $4.5 billion in June, snapping a six-month decline as higher oil shipments offset a sharp drop purchases in electronics and semiconductors, the National Statistics Office said Thursday.

NSO data showed the import bill in June rose faster than the revised 1.6-percent growth in May and the 2.9-percent expansion in June last year. Imports declined 7.9 percent from $4.89 billion in May.

Imports grew 15.6 percent to $30.5 billion in the first six months of the year from $26.37 billion a year ago.

Electronics shipments, accounting 25.5 percent of the total bill in June, fell 20.7 percent from a year earlier, the most since a 22.8- percent drop in September 2009.

Economist Benjamin Diokno said the sharp fall in electronics products was a leading indicator of slower exports of the sector in the months ahead.

“Imports growth started its downward trend from a peak of 35.6 percent in November of 2010,” said Diokno.

“With a grimmer world economic outlook for the second half of the 2011, and perhaps until mid-2013, I don’t see a rebound of both imports and manufacturing output in the near term,” he said.

Oil imports, meanwhile, jumped 42.5 percent in June.

Electronic products led a slump in imports at 20.7 percent, followed by transport equipment, 17.8 percent; cereals and cereal preparations, 13 percent; and iron and steel, 8.4 percent.

“The sharp fall in transport equipment imports may be attributed to the supply disruptions as a result of Japan’s triple tragedy. The decline in cereals import is not necessarily a bad thing. It means the over-importation in the past has been addressed,” said Diokno.

Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. said he was hoping imports would grow at a much faster pace in the second half.

“We hope that it will recover in the next second half of the year. The announcements that we get from the Japanese side is that they are recovering faster than expected,” said Paderanga.

Meanwhile, the factory output as monitored in the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries also released by NSO Thursday showed that the value of production index for total manufacturing accelerated at a slower rate of 2.7 percent in June. Elaine R. Alanguilan, Manila Standard Today