Thailand
Brunei: Merchandise trade sees 36.6pc increase y-o-y
There was a 36.6-per-cent increase in total merchandise trade from BND2,200.2 million in July 2021 to BND3,0004.7 million in July 2022.However, a decrease of 7.4 per cent was recorded compared to June 2022, said the Department of Economic Planning and Statistics, Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE) yesterday.
It continued that total exports increased by 38.7 per cent from BND1,361.6 million in July 2021, to BND1,888.3 million in July 2022. This was mainly due to the increase in mineral fuels exports from BND1,017.7 million to BND1,567.2 million in the same period. In addition, chemicals exports increased from BND252.1 million to BND287.9 million in the same period.
The agency said the increase in mineral fuels exports was mainly due to the higher export value of crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petroleum products which attributed from the increase in average price by 57.8 per cent from USD75.79 per barrel in July 2021 to USD119.62 per barrel in July 2022.
Meanwhile, the increase in LNG was due to a rise in both export volume and average price by 29.7 per cent and 48.3 per cent, respectively.
Petroleum products exports recorded an increase, from BND455.9 million to BND706.5 million, in which the main commodity was automotive diesel fuels.
In terms of commodity, mineral fuels represents the major contributor to the country’s exports at 83.0 per cent, followed by chemicals (15.2 per cent), and manufactured goods (0.6 per cent). The main exports market in July 2022 was Australia at 27.0 per cent, followed by Japan (16.8 per cent), and China (12.8 per cent).
The largest export commodity to Australia and Japan was mineral fuels, while to China was chemicals.
Total value of imports increased from BND838.6 million in July 2021 to BND1,116.4 million in July 2022, mainly due to a significant increase in imports of mineral fuels.
The five main imports by commodity this month were mineral fuels with 73.6 per cent, followed by machinery and transport equipment at (9.3 per cent), food (5.0 per cent), chemicals (4.2 per cent) and manufactured goods (3.7 per cent).
The biggest import partner by share was Malaysia at 20.9 per cent, followed by Qatar (13.3 per cent) and Iraq (12.3 per cent), with mineral fuels as the largest import commodity.
Most of the country’s imports at 59.0 per cent are used as intermediate goods for processing, followed by capital goods (38.2 per cent) for business operations and consumption goods (2.8 per cent) for household use.
Transport by sea accounted for the highest share for both exports and imports, which amounted to BND2,888.2 million or 96.1 per cent.
This was followed by air transport (BND91.6 million or 3.0 per cent) and via land (BND24.8 million or 0.8 per cent).
The International Merchandise Trade Statistics report for July 2022 is available from the DEPS’s website at deps.mofe.gov.bn.
Source: https://borneobulletin.com.bn/merchandise-trade-sees-36-6pc-increase-y-o-y/