Imports down nearly by 25 per cent this FY, MoC reports

THE value of Myanmar’s imports in the past ten months (Oct-July) of the current financial year 2020-2021 sank to nearly 25 per compared to the same corresponding period of last FY, the Ministry of Commerce’s data indicated.
The import value stood at US$12.25 billion, a sharp drop of over $4 billion from $16.28 billion registered in the year-ago period.
The value of imports in the consumer, capital, intermediate goods, and CMP businesses groups declined in the current FY. The drop in foreign direct investment this year negatively affected the trade.
In the past ten months, capital goods, such as auto parts, vehicles, machines, steel ware, and airplane parts were brought into the country. Their import value was estimated at $4 billion. The figure was over $2.139 billion lower than those value registered in the same period of the previous FY.
Meanwhile, Myanmar imported consumer products worth $2.67 billion, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and palm oil. The imports of consumer products showed a slight decrease of $183 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 $4.25 billion from $5.4 billion registered during the year-ago period.
During the same period, raw materials worth over $1.28 billion were also imported for the Cut-Make-Pack (CMP) garment sector, showing a decrease of $557.8 million compared with last fiscal year.
At present, the CMP garment sector which contributes to 30 per cent of Myanmar’s export sector is struggling owing to cancellation of order from the European countries and suspension of trade by western countries amid the COVID-19. Therefore, import values of raw materials by CMP businesses have been dropping.
At the present time, the traders have transaction problem triggered by the restriction of the private banks. Furthermore, the pandemic triggered the cargo shipping crisis, a market observer shared his opinion.
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