International trade activity in the Philippines grew by 2.4% year over year in December, the first increase since March, driven by a 21.9% rebound in exports. It should be borne in mind though that Dec. 2018 was unusually weak and a 7.6% slide in imports across industrial materials would suggest the underlying economy may be struggling. The outlook for Q1 will depend on the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in China, which represented 27.4% of exports from the Philippines total and represented 51.0% of the dollar growth in exports in December. The governments of Taiwan and Viet...