China became the Philippines' biggest source of imports with 22.2 percent share in January 2019, the Philippine Statistics Authority(PSA) announced on March 12.

“Import bills to this country posted an increase of 24.5 percent or US$2.01 billion, up from US$1.61 billion in January 2018,” the PSA said.

South Korea was placed second with import value of US$789.56 million in January 2019 or a share of 8.7 percent, the PSA said, adding that imports from this country decreased by 12.3 percent, from US$899.99 million in January 2018.

The PSA noted that Japan ranked the third,contributing 8.7 percent or import value of US$789.00 million in January 2019. This was a decrease of 6.2 percent from January 2018, which amounted to US$840.75 million, the PSA added.

The PSA said the United States came in fourth with a 7.2 percent share of the total import bills in January 2019. “Its total import bills dropped by 7.3 percent, from US$701.65 million in January 2018 to US$650.68 million in January 2019,” the PSA said.

Thailand came in fifth with imports valued at US$602.67 million in January or a share of 6.7 percent. Import bills from this country increased by 11.7 percent, from US$539.65 million in January 2018.

The Philippines' total external trade in goods in January 2019 reached US$14.31 billion,reflecting an increase of 2.9 percent from the US$13.91 billion recorded value in January 2018,according to the PSA.

Of total external trade, the PSA said US$5.28 billion or 36.9 percent were exported goods and US$9.03 billion or 63.1 percent were imported goods.

Furthermore, the Philippines' balance of trade in goods (BoT-G) increased to a US$3.76 billion deficit in January 2019, from US$3.16 billion deficit in January 2018.