MANILA - The drop in the country's merchandise imports eased to 25% in September, following a 28.3% drop in the previous month, the government said on Wednesday.

Data from the National Statistics Office showed that the import bill fell 25% to $3.67 billion in September from $4.89 billion in the same month last year. Compared to August's imports worth $3.617 billion, September's imports grew by 1.5%.

This led to the smallest monthly trade deficit of $34 million since a surplus in November 2008.

Purchases of electronic parts, which accounted for 36.3% of the total import bill, dropped 22.1% to $1.331 billion in September from the $1.708 billion recorded in the same month last year. This was mainly caused by a 25.1% decrease in semiconductor imports, which had the biggest share of electronics purchases at 26.7%.

Electronics are mostly used in the country's exports industry, a bedrock of the economy.

Other key imports during September were mineral fuels, lubricants, transport equipment, industrial machinery, organic and inorganic chemicals, iron and steel.

Japan remained the country's largest source of imports for the month with a 14.6% share, recording payments worth $534.15 million. This was, however, lower by 5.8% than last year's $566.74 million.

The United States came in second with $379.75 million or a 10.4% share of the total import bill. US was followed by China (9.3%), Singapore (8.6%), and Korea (8.3%).

The Philippine central bank expects merchandise imports to slip 17% this year, but grow 13% in 2010, and exports to fall 20% this year and climb 7% next year.

Philippine exports fell 18.3% in September from a year earlier, but the drop was the smallest since November last year.