Philippine trade with APEC economies up 6.8% in 2015

The Philippines, which will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this year, saw its trade with 20 other APEC economies increase by over 6.8 percent annually to about 109.62 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, an official said Sunday.

Angelina Sta. Catalina, deputy director general for Conferences Services of the APEC 2015 said the country's hosting of APEC widens opportunities for increased regional trade in goods and services, specifically intra-APEC trade, including global trade.

Sta. Catalina cited a trend indicating Philippine trade growing by about 6.8 percent every year since its APEC membership in 1989.

"So if there has been an improvement in our trade figures as a consequence of APEC, then we are looking forward to more increased trade because of the kind of initiatives that we are undertaking in the various discussions," she said.

Sta. Catalina said Philippine total external trade with APEC members reached 96.104 billion U.S. dollars, or 80.7 percent of the country's entire trade, in 2013.

"We do have a balance trade here (APEC) in our favor ... There is a lot trade that takes place among different APEC economies," added Sta. Catalina.

Apart from increased trade opportunities, she said the Philippines is also benefiting from APEC's hosting through increased investment funds.

The central Philippine city of Cebu is currently hosting the 16- day APEC Third Senior Officials' Meeting and Related Meetings until Sept. 6.