MANILA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- China was the Philippines' biggest supplier of imports with 22.1 percent share of the total imports in December 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.

The PSA said import bills from China to the Philippines posted an increase of 8.1 percent or an amount of 1.87 billion U.S. dollars, from 1.73 billion U.S. dollars in December 2017.

However, import bills from Japan, South Korea, the United States and Thailand all declined in last December, the PSA data showed.

Japan placed second with an import value of 826.05 million U.S. dollars in December 2018 or a share of 9.7 percent, the PSA said, adding that imports from Japan decreased by 3.4 percent, from 855.28 million U.S. dollars in December 2017.

South Korea, which ranked third, contributed 9.2 percent or an import value of 775.56 billion U.S. dollars in December 2018, the PSA said. "This recorded a decrement of 17.7 percent from the December 2017 value amounting to 942.63 million U.S. dollars," the PSA said.

The PSA said the U.S. came fourth with a 7.8 percent share to the total import bills in December 2018. "Its total import bills contracted by 36.9 percent, from 1.04 billion U.S. dollars in December 2017 to 657.70 million U.S. dollars in December 2018," the PSA said.