CV yields negative trade balance value for 4Q 2019

CDN FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Domestic trade balance for Central Visayas has dipped further into the negative territory for the fourth quarter in 2019, recent data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) have howed.

The PSA on February 26, 2020 released the highlights of Domestic Trade Statistics in the Philippines for the last quarter in 2019.

Second to Caraga

State statisticians found out that Central Visayas was among the regions with the highest unfavorable trade balance as it posted a negative trade balance value of P20.32 billion.

The PSA also saw that the quantity of goods trade in the region dramatically decreased to 59,092 tons for the fourth quarter of 2019 from 671,260 tons for the same period in 2018.

The figures account for a 91.2 percent drop.

Central Visayas came next to Caraga (Region XIII) which PSA noted as the region with the highest unfavorable trade balance for the period after recording a negative trade balance value of P23.06 billion.

In 2018, the region ranked third in the list of areas with the highest unfavorable trade balance after yielding a negative trade balance value of P15.92 billion.

Trade balance, outflow, inflow

Trade balance refers to the difference between the outflow and inflow value of domestic trade. Results yielding negative figures are termed as unfavorable while positive ones are classified as favorable.

Outflow is further defined as the total value of commodities being flown out by a specific region or province. Inflow, on the other hand, refers to the inbound flow of goods.

PSA defines domestic trade value as equal to the outflow value.

National Capital Region (NCR) remains the region with the highest favorable trade balance for the last quarters in both 2018 (P42 billion) and 2019 (P32 billion).

Total quantity of domestic trade

Meanwhile, PSA disclosed that the country’s total quantity and value of domestic trade during the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased.

In terms of quantity, they revealed a 45.4 percent drop from the same quarter in 2018.

“The total quantity of domestic trade during the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased to 3.95 million tons or by 45.4 percent, from 7.24 million tons in the same quarter a year ago,” PSA said.

The value of domestic trade also went down by 27.8 percent from the P177 billion recorded in the same period for 2018 to P127.76 billion for 2019.

At 99.8 percent, most of the commodities were traded through water, PSA said.

“The PSA compiles domestic trade statistics from coasting manifests and coastwise passenger manifests from major ports and other active seaports listed by the Philippine Ports of Authority (PPA) all over the country. It also collects air waybills from Philippine Airlines (PAL) as source of domestic trade statistics from air,” they added./dbs