page-3-B_30042020

Brunei: BND1.5 billion total trade recorded in February

Brunei Darussalam’s total trade in February 2020 was valued at BND1,510.7 million, an increase by 45.4 per cent from BND1,038.9 million during the same month last year. Meanwhile, for month-to-month changes, total trade for February 2020 decreased by 16.3 per cent compared to January 2020.

Exports rose by 59.7 per cent year-on-year to BND1,121.2 million compared to BND701.9 million in February 2019. This was due to the increase in mineral fuels exports by 47.3 per cent year-on-year mainly contributed by the exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petroleum and gas products of which the major commodity was ‘other motor spirit, of other RON, unleaded’ from the downstream activities.

The main export market for Brunei Darussalam in February 2020 was Japan (34.3 per cent) followed by Singapore (19.6 per cent) and People’s Republic of China (9.3 per cent). In terms of commodity exports, mineral fuels represents the major contributor with 86.6 per cent followed by chemicals (12.4 per cent) and machinery and transport equipment (0.6 per cent). Meanwhile, total imports increased by 15.6 per cent year-on-year to BND389.5 million driven by imports of mineral fuels in line with the downstream activities.

The five main import commodities were mineral fuels (39.1 per cent), followed by machinery and transport equipment (29.2 per cent), food (9.5 per cent), manufactured goods (8.7 per cent) and chemicals (6.5 per cent). By end use category, imports of intermediate goods comprised of 61.3 per cent of the total imports followed by capital goods (32.5 per cent) and consumption goods (6.2 per cent).

For imports by trading partners, the highest share was from the United Arab Emirates (24.3 per cent), followed by Malaysia (19.9 per cent) and Singapore (13.5 per cent). The International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) for Brunei Darussalam adopts the General System for recording trade statistics, which covers imports, domestic exports, and re-exports. The IMTS full report for February 2020 is available from the Department of Economic Planning and Statistics website: www.deps.gov.bn.

Source: https://borneobulletin.com.bn/bnd1-5-billion-total-trade-recorded-in-february/