TACLOBAN CITY — Eastern Visayas earned a trade surplus of $6.32 million in May 2024 with almost half of its export receipts coming from China, the latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) regional office showed.

However, the trade surplus in 2024 is not enough to offset the huge trade deficit of $106.4 million experienced by the region over the same period in 2023.

The report was released on Friday, 11 October 2024.

The PSA regional office said Eastern Visayas recorded a total value of exports in May 2024 of $176.98 million, up by 27.68 percent from $138.61 million a year ago.

On the other hand, imports in May 2024 amounted to $170.66 million, or a decline of 30.34 percent from $245.01 million.

Trade value steady

Total external trade in May 2024 was $347.65 million, or a decrease of 9.38 percent compared with the $383.62 million total trade in May 2023.

The PSA report said copper and copper articles remained to be the region’s major export with sales amounting to $122.25 million. This accounted for 69.07 percent of the total value of exports in May 2024.