MANILA, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Philippine merchandise imports grew by 15.4 percent in June, making the Philippines one of Asia's top imports performers for the first half of 2016, a government agency said on Thursday.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said that total payments rose to 6.9 billion U.S. dollars from 5.9 billion U.S. dollars in June 2015.
For the first half of 2016, the agency said total imports rose by 17.7 percent to 38.7 billion U.S. dollars. Inward shipment of capital goods grew by 64.6 percent in June 2016, amounting to 2.2 billion U.S. dollars, it added.
"This performance shows the strength of domestic demand in the country, particularly in consumption and investment, as reflected by the (country's) latest real gross domestic product growth of 7 percent in the second quarter," said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia in a statement.
Pernia said the Philippine performance "bodes well for the economy as it signals robust investment activity in industry and services moving forward."
NEDA also said that imports of consumer goods also increased by 32.6 percent to 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in June 2016.
"Higher spending was observed for both durable goods (59.8 percent), particularly passenger cars and motorised cycles, and non-durable goods (6.9 percent) such as food and live animals," the agency said.
"The trend of imports growth is expected to remain positive, albeit at a slightly lower pace due to a relatively weak outlook for electronics exports, which will affect the importation of electrical equipment. However, strong construction activity will continue to boost on durable equipment and capital goods," said Pernia, also the NEDA director general.
He added that it remains important to support growth enhancing measure that will sustain consumption and investment.
