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MANILA - The country's current account surplus in the first three months of 2012 fell 8.1 percent from the previous year as import payments outpaced export earnings.
In a report, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said the country enjoyed an $882 million surplus in its current account, which encompasses net exports of goods and services, income payments and other transfers, and as such indicates foreign-exchange earning power.
This year's surplus comprises 1.6 percent of the Philippine economy or gross domestic product, and has dropped from the $960 million in the same three-month period of 2011.
This year's surplus owed to improvements in the current transfers and trade-in-services accounts.
The country enjoyed $4.1 billion in net current transfers courtesy of the $4 billion in remittances by overseas Filipino workers.
Also contributing to the first-quarter current account surplus was $1.1 billion in earnings from the trade-in-services account, which includes revenues of call centers and business process outsourcing, as well as tourism receipts.
Despite the net inflows from the current transfers and trade-in-services accounts, the overall current account surplus was weighed down by the $4 billion deficit in the trade-in-goods account.
This was 2.2 percent wider than the $3.9 billion last year, indicating that the Philippines in 2012 bought more products than it sold abroad.
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