IN an economic bulletin published on Tuesday, the Department of Finance (DoF) revealed an unusual problem in the country’s trade data: According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Direction of Trade Statistics report, the Philippines exported about 30 percent more in 2018 than data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) indicated. The difference between the two figures was significantly wider than the 22.9 percent discrepancy seen in 2017.

The Finance department said the PSA statistics showed a 1.8-percent decline in exports year-on-year but data gathered by the IMF from the Philippines’ trading partners showed that exports actually grew by 8.2 percent in 2018.