Submitted by moiuser on 30 June 2021

THE value of Myanmar’s imports between 1 October and 18 June in the current financial year 2020-2021  stood  at  US$10.84  billion,  a  sharp  drop  of  $3.5  billion  from  $14.36  billion  registered  in  the  year ago  period,  according  to  data released by the Ministry of Commerce.

The  value  of  imports  in  theconsumer,  capital,  intermediate goods, and CMP businesses groups  declined  in  the  current  FY.  The  drop  in  foreign  direct  investment  this  year  negatively  affected the trade.

Over the past eight and a half months of the current FY, capital goods, such as auto parts, vehicles,  machines,  steel,  and  aeroplane  parts  were  brought  into  the  country.  Their  import  value  was estimated at $3.77 billion. The figure was over $1.7 billion lower than  those  values  registered  in  the same period of the previous F Y.

Meanwhile,  Myanmar  imported consumer products worth $2.3 billion, including pharmaceuticals,  cosmetics,  and  palm  oil.  The  imports  of  consumer  products showed a slight decrease of $162.7 million compared with the same period in the previous FY.

Intermediate  goods  make  up  the  second-largest  share  of  Myanmar’s imports, with petroleum  products  and  plastic  raw  materials being the main import items. This year, imports of raw materials plunged to $3.66 billion from $4.78 billion registered during the year-ago period.

During the same period, rawmaterials  worth  over  $1  billion  were also imported for the Cut-Make-Pack (CMP) garment sector,  showing  a  decrease  of  $524  million  compared  with  the  last  budget year.

At  present,  the  CMP  garment  sector  which  contributes  to  30  per  cent  of  Myanmar’s  export  sector  is  struggling  due  to  the  cancellation  of  the  order  from the European countries and suspension of trading by western countries  amid  the  COVID-19.

Therefore, import values of raw materials  by  CMP  businesses  have been dropping.

The top 10 import countries to  Myanmar  are  China,  Singapore,  Thailand,  Malaysia,  Indonesia,  India,  Viet  Nam,  Japan,  the  Republic  of  Korea  and  the  US, as per data of the Ministry of Commerce.

KH/GNLM

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