Export earnings in April 2013 amounted to $4.041 billion, a 12.8 percent decrement from $4.328 billion recorded in April of 2012. Similarly, on a monthly basis, it decreased by 6.7 percent from $4.329 billion posted in March 2013. The negative growth was supported by six major commodities out of the top ten commodities for the month. These are other chemicals, other manufactures, machinery and transport equipment, electronic equipment and parts, metal components and electronic products. Aggregate merchandise exports for the first four months of 2013 showed a decrease of 8.0 percent from $17.514 billion in 2012 to $16.122 billion in 2013.

Export earnings in March 2013 amounted to $4.329 billion, a 0.1 percent increment from $4.322 billion recorded in March of 2012. Similarly, on a monthly basis, it increased by 15.7 percent from $3.741 billion posted in February 2013. The positive growth was supported by six major commodities out of the top ten commodities for the month. These are other mineral products, other manufactures, metal components, woodcrafts and furniture, coconut oil and ignition wiring set and other wiring sets used in vehicles, aircrafts and ships. Aggregate merchandise exports for the first three months of 2013 showed a decrease of 6.2 percent from $12.876 billion in 2012 to $12.080 billion in 2013.

Total external trade in goods for February 2013 reached $8.449 billion, representing a 10.4 percent decrease from $9.427 billion recorded during the same month in 2012. This was due to the 5.8 percent downward trend of total imports from $4.996 billion to $4.708 billion in February 2013. Similarly, exports showed a 15.6 percent decrement from $4.430 billion to $3.741 billion in February 2013. Thus, the balance of trade in goods (BOT-G) for the Philippines in February 2013 registered a deficit of $967 million from $566 million deficit in the same period last year.