Quantity of domestic trade inches up

The total quantity of domestic trade in 2019 posted a total of 25.89 million tons. This represents a slight increase at an annual rate of 0.4 percent, from 25.78 million tons a year ago. Almost all or 99.9 percent of the commodities were traded through water (coastwise) and the remaining were through air. (Figure 1 and Table 1)

By commodity section, food and live animals topped in terms of quantity of domestic trade in 2019 with 6.20 million tons or a share of 24.0 percent to total. It was followed by manufactured goods classified chiefly by material and mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials with 5.50 million tons (21.2%) and 3.95 million tons (15.2%), respectively. (Figure 2 and Table 1)

By region, Central Visayas registered the highest quantity of traded commodities of 4.74 million tons or 18.3 percent share to total in 2019. Northern Mindanao ranked second with a quantity of 4.51 million tons (17.4%) and the National Capital Region (NCR) placed third with 4.22 million tons (16.3%). (Figure 3 and Table 2)

Value of domestic trade declines

Domestic trade value is equal to the outflow value which refers to the value of commodities that goes out from a specified region or province.

In 2019, the total value of domestic trade was estimated at PhP834.72 billion. It contracted by 2.9 percent from the PhP859.57 billion value of domestic trade recorded a year ago. (Figure 4 and Table 1)

By mode of transport, the total value of traded commodities through water accounted for 99.9 percent of the total commodities that flow in the country. The remaining 0.1 percent of the total traded commodities were through air transport.

Machinery and transport equipment led in terms of value of traded commodities with PhP270.05 billion or 32.4 percent share to total. It was followed by food and live animals and manufactured goods classified chiefly by material with values of PhP184.90 billion (22.2%) and PhP121.32 billion (14.5%), respectively. (Figure 5 and Table 1)

Among the regions, NCR topped with a value of PhP267.46 billion or 32.0 percent share to total value of domestic trade in 2019. Central Visayas ranked second with a value of PhP149.25 billion (17.9%) and Eastern Visayas, third place with PhP112.54 billion (13.5%). (Figure 6 and Table 2)

Central Visayas leads in terms of inflow value

Inflow refers to the total value of commodities that comes in to the specified region or province.

By region, Central Visayas posted the highest inflow value of PhP175.72 billion or 21.1 percent share to total inflow value of domestic trade in 2019. It was followed by Caraga and Western Visayas with inflow values of PhP133.36 billion (16.0%) and PhP117.93 billion (14.1%), respectively. Cagayan Valley, on the other hand, had the lowest inflow value of PhP0.02 billion. (Figure 7 and Table 3)

NCR registers the highest trade balance

Trade balance is the difference between the inflow value and outflow value, that is, outflow minus inflow.

The top three regions with favorable (positive) trade balances in 2019 were the following:

• NCR, PhP198.11 billion;
• Eastern Visayas, PhP37.27 billion; and
• Central Luzon, PhP28.32 billion.

Caraga, on the other hand, had the highest unfavorable (negative) trade balance value of PhP110.03 billion. (Figure 8 and Table 3)

Total number of passenger down by 28.3 percent

A total of 28.13 million passengers were transported via coastwise in 2019, a decrease of 28.3 percent from the 39.25 million passengers a year ago. Central Visayas recorded the highest number of passengers of 6.98 million. MIMAROPA Region placed second with 4.45 million passengers and Western Visayas came third at 4.32 million passengers. (Figure 9 and Table 5)

ROSALINDA P. BAUTISTA
Assistant Secretary
Deputy National Statistician
Sectoral Statistics Office

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Introduction

Commodity flow or domestic trade statistics is a compilation of data on commodities carried through air, rail, and water transport systems in a given country. However in the Philippines, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) compiles domestic trade carried through air and water only.

The PSA compiles domestic trade statistics from coasting manifests and coastwise passenger manifests from major ports and other active seaports listed by the Philippine Ports of Authority (PPA) all over the country. It also collects air waybills from domestic airlines in the country as source of domestic trade statistics from air.

Data on the inflow and outflow of commodities in the different regions of the country are used to construct inter-regional and inter-industry relation tables.

All copies of documents are compiled and processed by the Provincial Statistical Offices of PSA. Final data review of the data files, generation of statistical tables, and preparation of Special  Releases are done at the Central Office, particularly in the Trade Statistics Division (TSD) of the Economic Sector Statistics Service.

The 1993 Philippine Standard Commodity Classification (PSCC) Revision 2 is used to classify the commodities at the 5-digit level (item) for coastwise statistics and 3-digit level (group) for air statistics.

Domestic trade datafiles received after the set deadline of quarterly releases are all included in this annual Special Release which is published 4 months after the reference year. Moreover, annual data are also disseminated in the form of publication (e-book) 6 months after the reference year.

Detailed data on domestic trade statistics are available at TSD with telephone number (02) 8376-19-75 and email address tsd.staff@psa.gov.ph.

Limitations of Domestic Trade Statistics

Domestic trade statistics contained in this report pertains to the flow of goods through airports and seaports in the country, whether for government or private use or for commercial
purposes. Domestic trade through land is excluded because of the absence of an approach to capture data in the archipelagic island of the country. Since 2007, rail transport statistics
are excluded due to the rehabilitation and upgrading of the Philippine National Railway (PNR).

Air waybills, on the other hand, are collected only from domestic airlines which accounted for transactions that pass through all domestic airports in the country.

Goods and/or commodities that are excluded in the compilation of data are the following:

a. Goods transported by vessels of the Philippine Navy;
b. Fishing ports;
c. Fish and other marine products landed directly from the sea;
d. Logistic goods intended for the vessel and the crew;
e. Cadaver; and
f. Vessels not carrying any cargo/passenger, wherein the vessel master indicates "NIL CARGO/ PASSENGER" in the coasting manifest or passenger documents.

See more at the Annual Domestic Trade Main page.