Myanmar foreign trade surges to over $18 bln as of 14 October

MYANMAR’s external trade between 1 April and 14 October in the 2022-2023 Financial Year tremendously climbed to US$18.26 billion, reflecting a sharp increase of $3.2 billion as against the year-ago period, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The figures soared from $15.04 billion in the corresponding period last year.
Myanmar’s export was worth over $9 billion whereas the country’s import was valued at $9.147 billion this FY.
During the six-and-half-a-month period, both the seaborne trade and the border trade showed an increase in trade compared with the year ago period, comprising $13.9 billion from the maritime trade and $4.344 billion from the border channels.
Myanmar exports agricultural produce, animal products, minerals, forest products, and finished industrial goods, while it imports capital goods, raw industrial materials, and consumer goods.
The country’s export sector relies more on the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. The Ministry of Commerce is focusing on reducing trade deficit, export promotion, import substitution and market diversification.
The external trade stood at $15.5 billion in the past mini-budget 2021-2022 (Oct-March) period and $29.58 billion in the 2020-2021 FY, as per the Commerce Ministry’s statistics.—KK/GNLM