Myanmar’s sea trade surges in interim budget period
Myanmar’s maritime trade increased by over US$770.2 million in the first four months of the interim budget period, compared to the same period of the last fiscal year of 2020-2021, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The sea-route foreign trade amounted to over US$8.7 billion as of Feb. 11 in the six-month interim budget period which started in October last year.
The South-East Asian country announced changing its fiscal year from the original October-September to April-March beginning 2022-2023, producing a six-month interim budget period from October last year to March this year.
From Oct. 1 last year to Feb. 11 this year, the country’s maritime foreign export saw an increase of more than US$671.8 million while its maritime import saw an increase of over US$98.4 million.
Sea-route export of the country amounted to over US$3.9 billion while its sea-route import totaled over US$4.8 billion during the interim budget period.
About 80 percent of the country’s trade with foreign countries is usually done through sea route as the country boasts a long coastline. Its border trade is conducted with neighboring China, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India.
Despite the sea trade surge, the border trade dropped more than US$2.01 billion in the interim budget period from a year earlier.
The country’s border trade totaled over US$2.4 billion in the interim budget period. Border trade in the same period of last fiscal year amounted to over 4.4 billion U.S. dollars. Myanmar, which is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and one of the 15 signatories of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), has been experiencing social and economic problems because of the Covid-19 pandemic and political crisis.
The country’s total foreign trade in the interim budget period declined more than US$1.2 billion compared to the same period of a year earlier when its trade value totaled more than 12.4 billion U.S. dollars.
The South-East Asian country earned more than half of its total foreign revenues from the export of manufacturing goods, which brought in over 3.2 billion U.S. dollars during that period.
The county’s sales of export goods brought in more than US$5.7 billion of foreign revenues in the interim budget period.
Myanmar’s commerce ministry has set a target of US$17 billion for total foreign trade in the six-month interim budget period, an official of the ministry told Xinhua last year. The country’s total foreign trade in over four months of the six-month interim budget period has now exceeded US$11 billion, the ministry’s data showed. Therefore, the country will need another nearly US$6 billion foreign trade value in the next nearly two months to meet its target.
The country exports agricultural products, animal products, fisheries, minerals, forest products, manufacturing goods, and others to foreign countries while capital goods, intermediate goods, and consumer goods are imported into the country.
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