8 June
MYANMAR’S imports have exceeded US$12 billion in the eight months since October in the current fiscal year, the Min-istry of Commerce reported on Friday. Compared with the cor-responding period of the 2017-2018FY, imports have declined by more than $780 million, or 6 per cent.
From 1 October to 31 May in the 2018-2019FY, the public sector spent about $700 million on imports of three groups of products — $538 million on cap-ital goods, $126 million on inter-mediate goods, and $33 million on consumer goods. Compared with the same period in the pre-vious FY, public sector imports have declined by more than $200 million.
During the period, private importers bought four major kinds of goods: capital goodsworth $3.8 billion, semi-finished goods valued at nearly $4.6 bil-lion, consumer products worth almost $2.2 billion, and raw materials used by CMP (cut-make-pack) businesses worth over $1.5 billion.
The total value of goods im-ported by the private sector was $11.5 billion, a decline of more than $570 million compared with the same period in the previous FY. During the October-May pe-riod in the previous fiscal year, Myanmar imported goods worth $12.9 billion, with the public sec-tor spending over $900 million, and the private sector $12.06 billion.
While imports fell during the eight-month period, exports rose by $1.25 billion.—Swe Nye-in (Translated by Khaing Thanda Lwin)
