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Myanmar's foreign trade nears 2 bil



Myanmar's foreign trade nears 2 billion dollars 
 
Rangoon, Xinhua, 12 October 1999.  Myanmar's foreign trade, including the
border trade, totaled some 1.9 billion U.S. Dollars in the first six months
of this year, a 0.27-percent drop over the same period of last year,
according to the Central Statistical Organization. Of the total trade
volume, imports were 1.26 billion dollars while exports stood at 628.2
million dollars, producing a trade deficit of 636.4 million dollars, the
Organization said in its latest data. During the six-month period, the
import value of capital goods, consumers goods and intermediate goods
accounted for 49.88 percent, 38.87 percent and 11.25 percent of the total
imports respectively, the statistics show. Myanmar's main export goods are
agricultural, marine and wood products. The
figures also indicate that during the period, the import value of the
private sector amounted to 879.93
million dollars, making up 69.58 percent of the total import while its
export value was 468.18 million
dollars, 74.52 percent of the total exports. The import and export value of
the government sector during
the period accounted for only 30.42 percent and 25.48 percent respectively. 


DAVID ARNOTT'S REQUEST:

Could someone with more economic analytical skills than I have, explain to
us how it is possible for a country to regularly export about twice what it
imports. This has been a pattern for several years, if one is to believe
the Economist Intelligence Unit's figures, according to which, except for
from 1994/95, exports have fallen annually as a proportion of total trade.
The Xinhua figures, from the same source as EIU, indicate a slight rise in
1999,  but these figures are only for the first 6 months. There couldn't be
hidden exports, could there?


Year		Total exports 		Total imports		Exports as % of total trade
                        (million Kyat)		(million Kyat										
1993/94    	4,227.8  		7,923.3 			34.794
1994/95  	5,405.2 		8,332.3				39.339
1995/96  	5,032.7 		10,301.6			32.819
1996/97  	5,487.7 		11,778.8 			31.786
1997/98  	6,290.0 		13,860.2			31.220

(Source Economist Intelligence Unit,  "Myanmar (Burma) Country Profile
1998-99" -- which cites its sources as the [Government of Myanmar's]
Central Statistical Organisation "Selected Monthly Economic Indicators")

		million US$ 		million US$
1999*	628.2 			1260				33.333

*1st 6 months. 

Source,  Xinhua 12 October 1999, citing the  [Government of Myanmar]
Central Statistical Organisation 



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