We are both familiar and unfamiliar with the country of the Philippines, familiar because it often appears in our news, especially this year. It is said that it is unfamiliar, it is because I really don't know much, except that I know that I am a member of ASEAN, and I basically don't know anything about the country's economy.
In fact, the economy of the Philippines and our country is very close, and China was even the largest surplus country in the Philippines at one timeIn 2007, the Philippines had a surplus of $15.6 billion with ChinaBut at that time, the Philippines as a whole was in deficit, with a scale of 7.5 billion US dollars, and if it were not for a huge surplus with China, then the Philippines' ** deficit would be as high as more than 20 billion US dollars. At that time, the GDP of the Philippines was only $156 billion.
How has the ** between China and the Philippines changed?It is roughly divided into three periods, the 90s was a little surplus with the Philippines, the first 12 years of the 21st century were mainly a deficit with the Philippines, and the scale was quite large, and since 2013, the Philippines began to have a surplus, and the scale is getting bigger and bigger.
These three periods also represent China's three stages of economic development, China and the Philippines only established diplomatic relations in 1975, because this is a leading country, is an ally of the United States, and the United States has stationed troops, so Sino-Philippine relations began to improve after the improvement of Sino-US relations, this rhythm is basically the same as that of the United States, China and the United States were Nixon's visit to China in 1972, and diplomatic relations were formally established in 1979.
Soon China changed its way, but in the early days, China's industrial level was still very low, and the foreign export was mainly raw materials and agricultural products, and the domestic consumption capacity was very limited, resulting in limited imports, mainly to earn foreign exchange, so at that time, the Philippines was mainly exported raw materials, which led to a little surplus for the Philippines.
In the 90s of the last century, the economic development momentum of Southeast Asia is good, the per capita GDP of the Philippines has been higher than China, this situation did not begin to change until the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the entire Southeast Asia suffered a heavy blow in the Asian financial turmoil, the momentum of economic development was interrupted, and China withstood this round of economic crisis, coupled with the accession to the WTO in 2001, China's demographic dividend advantage has been brought into full play.
After entering the 21st century, China has gradually become the world's factory, so it needs to import a large number of raw materials and components, and export finished products to European and American countries, which has caused China to import a large number of goods from the Philippines, and China's ability to export to the Philippines is relatively limited, the Philippines has maintained a huge ** surplus with China, and finally reached its peak in 2007, when China imported 23.1 billion US dollars of goods from the Philippines, a record that was not broken until 14 years later in 2021.
In 2008, the financial crisis hit the Philippine economy again, and China withstood again, industrial upgrading is also completing rapidly, the competitiveness of products in the international market is getting stronger and stronger, exports to the Philippines continue to grow, from 7.5 billion US dollars in 2007 to 16.7 billion US dollars in 2012, and it is also after this year that China ended its ** deficit with the Philippines.
The economic and trade relations between the two sides have entered the third stage, that is, the Philippines began to have a deficit with China, by 2017, China's exports to the Philippines increased to 32.1 billion US dollars, doubling from 2012, in 2016 Duterte served as the Philippines, relations with China have improved significantly, and the amount of the two sides has further increased, and by 2022, China's total exports of goods to the Philippines have increased to$64.7 billion, doubling from 2017China's ** surplus with the Philippines has also reached a staggering $41.7 billion, more than 10% of the Philippines' GDP
Starting in 2023, China-Philippines economic and trade relations may enter a new stage, and in the first 11 months of this year, the total amount of China and the Philippines fell by 161%, the largest decline among the entire ASEAN countries, China's total exports of goods to the Philippines fell to $48.1 billion, and imports from the Philippines also fell to $17.9 billion, but the surplus remained as high as $30.2 billion, maintaining a high level.
China's domestic demand is very large, opening a small opening can benefit the Philippines immensely, but imports from the Philippines reached a peak of 23.1 billion US dollars in 2007, only 2021 is exceeded, other years are lower than this scale, the Philippines is a small country, the economic scale is only 400 billion US dollars, and Vietnam is comparable, we also need a lot of agricultural products and fruits, the two sides actually still have a lot of room for economic cooperation, China is very experienced in infrastructure and industrial upgrading, the Philippines will also have a great demand in this regard。