The value of Myanmar’s imports nearly the past eleven months of the current financial year 2020-2021 sank to US$13.4 billion from $17.55 billion recorded in the same corresponding period of last FY, the Ministry of Commerce’s data indicated. All the import groups including the consumer, capital, intermediate goods, and CMP businesses plunged in the current FY. The drop in foreign direct investment this year negatively affected the trade. Between 1 October and 27 August this FY, capital goods, such as auto parts, vehicles, machines, steel, and aeroplane parts were brought into the country. Their import value was estimated at $4.33 billion. The figure was over $2.3 billion lower than those values registered in the same period of the previous FY.
Meanwhile, Myanmar imported consumer products worth over $3 billion, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and palm oil. The imports of consumer products showed a slight decrease of $82.7 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 $4.65 billion from $5.79 billion registered during the year-ago period. During the same period, raw materials worth over $1.4 billion were also imported for the Cut-Make-Pack (CMP) garment sector, showing a decrease of $584 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 because of the cancellation of orders 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. At present, the traders have transaction problems 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.
Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar