MANILA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' total external trade in goods in April totaled 13.84 billion U.S. dollars, posting a growth of 8.8 percent from 12.73 billion U.S. dollars recorded in April 2017, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Friday.

The PSA said the total exports dipped by 8.5 percent from 5.59 billion U.S. dollars in April 2017 to 5.11 billion U.S. dollars in April 2018.

On the other hand, the PSA said total imports increased to 8.73 billion U.S. dollars in April 2018 from 7.14 billion U.S. dollars in April 2017 or an annual growth rate of 22.2 percent.

Furthermore, the PSA said the country's balance of trade in goods expanded to a 3.62 billion U.S. dollars deficit in April 2018, higher than the 1.55 billion U.S. dollars deficit in April 2017.?