The Philippine trade deficit rose sharply in November as the government stood by controversial data showing a heavy fall in electronics shipments and other exports, providing more evidence the economy is trailing its Asian peers.
The National Statistics Office said on Tuesday the trade gap had expanded to $322 million in November from $35 million a year earlier.
"It is somewhat on the high side," said Jojo Gonzales, head of Philippine Equity Partners. "But that is what has been anticipated, having seen the awful export number earlier. So it should not be too much of a shock to the market."
Imports of $3.274 billion in November were 4.3 percent higher than in the same month of 2002, leaving the trade deficit for the first 11 months of last year at $1.939 billion - four times the deficit of $459 billion in the same period in 2002.
The statistics office held fast to November export data that showed a slide of 4.9 percent to $2.952 billion from a year earlier, driven by a more than 10 percent plunge in key electronics shipments.
The government had said it might revise the number after analysts noted the fall was far out of line with a general recovery in Asian exports.
Scepticism about the export data was reinforced by the higher-than-expected rise in November imports, which suggested electronics firms were buying more components from abroad to manufacture products for export.
"This (import) growth is encouraging, at least consistent with what we are seeing in the region given a broad-based recovery in electronics," said Song Seng Wun, regional economist at G.K. Goh Securities in Singapore.
"We still believe that probably there might be under-reporting somewhere along the line."
For the first 11 months of the year, the country's exports were up just 0.5 percent from a year earlier. Thailand's exports grew 15 percent in the whole of 2003.
Electronics shipments account for two-thirds of Philippine exports but some analysts have expressed concern that the country does not have the right mix of products to battle its competitors, particularly fast-growing China.
The peso edged closer to its all-time low of 55.85 to the dollar after the trade data was released.