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Brunei: Sultanate records BND1.1B total trade in April 2020
Brunei Darussalam’s total trade valued at BND1,143.7 million, a decrease by 2.2 per cent from BND1,170.0 million during the same month last year.
Meanwhile, for the month-to-month changes, total trade for April 2020 decreased by 19.3 per cent compared to March 2020.
The Department of Economic Planning and Statistics (JPES) of the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE) revealed this in highlighting the International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) for April 2020.
Exports decreased by 2.8 per cent year-on-year to BND727.3 million compared to BND748.5 million in April 2019 due to the decrease in mineral fuel exports. The decline in crude oil exports was due to the drop in price to USD22.91/bbl from USD75.07/bbl.
However, exports volume of crude oil increased by 30.3 per cent to 118.88 kbbl/day from 91.25 kbbl/day.
Meanwhile, a decline in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports was due to a drop in price to USD5.94/MMBtu in April 2020 from USD9.61/MMBtu (April 2019) and a decline in LNG volume by 12.2 per cent.
The main export market for Brunei in April 2020 was Singapore (36.6 per cent) followed by Japan (19.0 per cent) and Malaysia (13.3 per cent).
In terms of commodity exports, mineral fuels represents the major contributor with 85.9 per cent followed by chemicals (12.5 per cent) and machinery and transport equipment (0.9 per cent).
The total imports increased by 1.2 per cent year-on-year to BND416.4 million. The five main import commodities were machinery and transport equipment (30.4 per cent), followed by mineral fuels (28.0 per cent), manufactured goods (11.6 per cent), chemicals (11.2 per cent) and food (10.9 per cent).
By End Use category, imports of Intermediate Goods comprised 59.1 per cent of the total imports, followed by Capital Goods (33.8 per cent) and Consumption Goods (7.1 per cent). For imports by trading partners, the highest share was from the People’s Republic of China (17.7 per cent), followed by the United States (16.8 per cent) and Singapore (13.9 per cent).
In terms of merchandise trade in goods by mode of transport in April 2020, the mode of transport by sea recorded the biggest value amounting to BND1,082.0 million. This was followed by air (BND51.4 million) and by land (BND10.3 million).
The IMTS for Brunei Darussalam adopts the General System for recording trade statistics, which covers imports, domestic exports, and re-exports.
The full IMTS report for April 2020 is available at www.deps.gov.bn.
Source: https://borneobulletin.com.bn/2020/07/sultanate-records-bnd1-1b-total-trade-in-april-2020/