Philippines April trade deficit narrows but still close to $5 billion

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines posted a $4.8 billion trade deficit in April, narrower than the previous month’s three-month high of $5 billion, as imports sustained a double-digit growth, the statistics agency said on Thursday.

Imports rose 22.8% from a year earlier, the slowest since March last year, to $10.9 billion, while exports increased 6.0% to $6.1 billion.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Martin Petty)