01Key Takeaways
- The Philippines imported $133.86 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 8.2% from $145.88 billion in 2022, pulling back from a five-year peak.
- Electrical machinery topped import categories at 20.3% ($27.17 billion), the same category that also leads Philippine exports.
- China supplied 23.1% of imports ($30.94 billion), the single largest partner by a wide margin.
- Indonesia ranked second among partners at 9.2% ($12.28 billion), a figure closely tied to mineral fuels, the second-largest import category at 15.9% ($21.24 billion).
025-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $117.2B | $95.1B | $124.4B | $145.9B | $133.9B |
03Top Import Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $30.9B | 23.1% |
| 2 | Indonesia | $12.3B | 9.2% |
| 3 | Japan | $11.0B | 8.2% |
| 4 | United States | $9.1B | 6.8% |
| 5 | South Korea | $8.9B | 6.6% |
| 6 | Thailand | $8.2B | 6.1% |
| 7 | Singapore | $7.4B | 5.5% |
| 8 | Malaysia | $6.3B | 4.7% |
| 9 | Vietnam | $5.0B | 3.7% |
| 10 | Other Asia, nes | $4.9B | 3.7% |
04Top Import Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Electrical Machinery and Equipment and parts thereof; Sound Recorders and Reproducers, Television Image and Sound Recorders and Reproducers, and Parts and Accessories of such Articles | $27.2B | 20.3% |
| 2 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $21.2B | 15.9% |
| 3 | Nuclear Reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Parts thereof | $11.1B | 8.3% |
| 4 | Vehicles other than Railway or Tramway Rolling-Stock, and parts and accessories thereof | $10.2B | 7.6% |
| 5 | Iron and Steel | $4.2B | 3.1% |
| 6 | Plastics and Articles thereof | $4.1B | 3.1% |
| 7 | Cereals | $4.0B | 3.0% |
| 8 | Ores, Slag and Ash | $4.0B | 3.0% |
| 9 | Optical, Photographic, Cinematographic, Measuring, Checking, Precision, Medical or Surgical Instruments and Apparatus; Parts and Accessories thereof | $2.9B | 2.2% |
| 10 | Articles of Iron or Steel | $2.5B | 1.9% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
Imports Pulled Back After a 2022 Peak
The Philippines imported $133.86 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 8.2% from $145.88 billion in 2022. That 2022 total was the high point of the past five years, and the pullback that followed lines up closely with the pattern already seen on the export side of Philippine trade, covered in the companion data for this country.
Imports stood at $117.25 billion in 2019, then fell to $95.07 billion in 2020 as the pandemic disrupted global supply chains. Recovery followed quickly. The total climbed to $124.39 billion in 2021 and kept rising to $145.88 billion in 2022, before easing back to $133.86 billion in 2023. Even after that pullback, the total remains well above its 2019 level, a five-year shape that closely tracks the export side of the same economy. That parallel movement makes sense once the product data below is taken into account. When a country's largest import category and its largest export category are effectively the same industry, the two trade flows tend to rise and fall together rather than moving independently, since both depend on the same global demand cycle for the same underlying goods.
Electrical Machinery Tops Both Sides of Philippine Trade
Electrical machinery led every import category in 2023, worth $27.17 billion, or 20.3% of the total. That is the same category that also dominates Philippine exports, covered in the companion export data for this country, where it makes up more than half of everything the country sells abroad. The overlap is not a coincidence. A large share of the electronic components, wafers and parts that arrive as imports get assembled, tested and packaged locally before shipping back out as finished semiconductors, the backbone of the country's export economy. This is a common pattern for countries that specialize in assembly, testing and packaging rather than raw semiconductor fabrication from scratch. The country adds value at a specific stage of the process, importing components at one point in the chain and exporting a more finished product a little further along it.
Mineral fuels ranked second at 15.9% ($21.24 billion). Coal accounts for roughly 60% of the Philippines' power generation capacity, and Indonesia supplies most of what the country imports, a detail that connects directly to the partner data below. Machinery and mechanical appliances added 8.3% ($11.06 billion), and vehicles contributed 7.6% ($10.17 billion). Iron and steel added 3.1% ($4.17 billion), and plastics contributed a nearly identical 3.1% ($4.14 billion). Cereals added 3.0% ($4.05 billion), and ores, slag and ash contributed a nearly identical 3.0% ($4.00 billion). Optical, photographic and measuring instruments added 2.2% ($2.92 billion), and iron and steel articles closed out the top ten at 1.9% ($2.52 billion).
China Is the Largest Supplier, But No Other Partner Comes Close to Dominating
China supplied 23.1% of the Philippines' imports in 2023, worth $30.94 billion, the largest single partner by a wide margin. Indonesia ranked second at 9.2% ($12.28 billion), a share that lines up closely with the coal dependency described above. Japan followed at 8.2% ($10.95 billion). Together, those three suppliers made up 40.5% of total import value.
The United States added 6.8% ($9.12 billion), and the South Korea contributed 6.6% ($8.89 billion). Thailand added 6.1% ($8.19 billion), and Singapore contributed 5.5% ($7.39 billion). Malaysia added 4.7% ($6.28 billion), and Vietnam contributed 3.7% ($4.97 billion). A regional catch-all category covering smaller Asian markets not tracked individually closed out the top ten at 3.7% ($4.93 billion).
Beyond China's clear lead, this list is dominated by other Southeast and East Asian manufacturing economies, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam among them. That pattern fits an electronics assembly economy closely integrated into regional supply chains, sourcing components and equipment from nearby manufacturing hubs rather than more distant markets. It also means the Philippines sits inside a dense web of intra-Asian trade relationships, where components and semi-finished goods cross several borders before reaching a final consumer, rather than moving in a simple straight line from raw material to finished product.
Taken together, the Philippines' 2023 import data mirrors its export profile in one key respect, electrical machinery, while adding a second major theme the export side does not share: heavy dependence on imported coal and fuel to keep the country's power grid running. Both of those dependencies, electronics components and energy, are structural features of the economy rather than temporary conditions likely to change quickly.