28 April

TRADE between Myanmar and international  trade  partners  crossed  US$18.8  billion  so  far  in  the  current  fiscal  year,  an  increase  of  over  $130  million,  or  0.7  per  cent,  from  the  cor-responding period last FY, the Ministry of Commerce reported this Friday.

During  six  and  a  half  months,  Myanmar  exported  $8.98 billion worth of domestic products  to  international  buy-ers,  and  imported  $9.8  billion  worth of commodities, resulting in  a  trade  deficit  of  over  $844  million,  which  decreased  by  over  $656  million,  as  against  the  same  time  last  FY,  when  the  country  recorded  a  trade  deficit of $1.5 billion.

Compared with last FY, the current  import  value  declined  by over $600 million from both border  and  non-border  trade,  while the current export value increased by over $740 million.
Goods are delivered mainly through by sea in internation-al  trade.  As  of  19  April  in  the  current  fiscal,  the  country’s  maritime  trade  amounted  to  almost  $13.3  billion,  whereas  its  external  border  trade  was  pegged at $5.5 billion.

When  compared  with  this  time  last  year,  Myanmar’s  non-border trade decreased by over $300 million but its border trade  increased  by  over  $460  million.

Normally,  the  country  ex-ports  seven  major  groups  of  commodities—agricultural, forest, marine and animal prod-ucts,  minerals,  manufactured  products  and  other  miscella-neous items. It usually imports four  major  categories  of  com-modities—capital goods, inter-mediate  products,  consumer  goods and CMP raw materials.

During   the   2018   mi-ni-budget  period  (April-Sep-tember), the country’s exports reached  $8.8  billion  while  its imports were $9.8 billion, total-ling $14.2 billion.

The  ministry’s  statistical  report  indicated  that  Myan-mar-international trade exceed-ed  $25  billion  in  the  previous  2017-2018  FY.—Shwe  Khine  (Translated by Khaing Thanda Lwin)