MANILA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday that the Philippines' total trade grew for the fifth consecutive month in August 2018 by 7.8 percent, reaching 15.84 billion U.S. dollars.

The PSA said that imports and exports grew by 11.0 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively. The total exports grew from 5.98 billion dollars in August 2017 to 6.16 billion dollars in August 2018.

The total imports went up to 9.68 billion dollars in August 2018 from 8.72 billion dollars in the same month of previous year or an annual growth rate of 11.0 percent.

However, the Philippines' balance of trade in goods (BoT-G) expanded to a 3.51 billion dollars deficit from the 2.74 billion dollars deficit in August 2017.

Amid global challenges, the Philippine National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the government must continue supporting key and emerging export sectors to maintain the country's trade growth. The PSA said that exports continued its third month of gradual recovery at 3.1 percent from a nearly flat performance of 0.3 percent the previous month.

The NEDA Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said key strategies to improve the overall climate for export development are identified in the Philippine Export Development Plan 2018-2022.

According to Edillon, these include removing unnecessary regulatory impediments, raising productivity and competitiveness of Philippine enterprises, upgrading export quality and standards, improving access to trade finance, and enhancing export sectors' innovative capacities.

Meanwhile, the PSA said growth of imports in August slowed in comparison to July.

"Imports growth softened because of weaker purchases of capital goods, raw materials and intermediate goods, and consumer goods," the PSA said.

Edillon added that the total import bill is expected to accelerate further in the coming months driven by capital goods to support the "Build, Build, Build" program, a Philippine infrastructure strategy.