Current account gap narrows in April to June
THE current account — a major component of the country’s balance of payments (BOP) — posted a $145-million deficit in the second quarter of 2019, a 95.6-percent decrease from $3.28 billion in the same period last year, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data showed on Friday
In a briefing, BSP Department of Economic Statistics Officer in Charge Fernando Silvoza mainly attributed the significant reduction to the lower deficit in the trade-in-goods account, which declined to $11.3 billion in the April-to-June period from $12.8 billion year-on-year.
“Increased net receipts of trade-in-services, and secondary and primary income also contributed to the improvement of the current account in the second quarter of the year,” he said.
The second-quarter result pulled down the year-to-date deficit tally to $1.74 billion, smaller than the $3.75-billion gap in the same period last year and lower than the central bank’s $10.1-billion forecast for 2019.
Silvoza attributed the first-half deficit to higher net receipts in the primary income, which increased to $2.5 billion from $1.5 billion; trade-in-services, up $5.9 billion from $4.9 billion; and secondary income accounts, which rose to $13.3 billion from $13.2 billion.
He said that during the six-month period, the deficit in the trade-in-goods account grew marginally to $23.5 billion from $23.3 billion.
The current account consists of transactions in goods, services, primary income and secondary income, and measures the net transfer of real resources between the domestic economy and the rest of the world.
The year-to-date current account brought the country’s payments balance position to a surplus of $4.78 billion in the first half, reversing the $3.25-billion deficit posted in the same period last year.
The BSP expects a BOP reversal to a surplus of $3.7 billion this year from the deficit of $2.306 billion recorded in 2018.