Myanmar’s capital goods import down by $54 mln over one month

A slowdown in the construction market acts as a barrier to importing capital goods, resulting in a drop of US$54 million over one month of the current financial year 2022-2023, Myanmar Customs Department’s statistics indicated.
Myanmar imported capital goods such as auto parts, vehicles, machines and steel, with an estimated import value of $345.66 million between 1 April and 6 May 2022, which slightly declined from $399.9 million.
Additionally, some foreign investment enterprises were suspended during the COVID-19 and the condominium property market relying on foreign expatriates plunged drastically. As a result of this, the realtors are forced to reduce the rents. The rental market continued a downward spiral amidst the COVID-19 consequences and political changes. The occupancy is drastically declining, a realtor from Yangon elaborated.
Nevertheless, the real estate market sees an upturn in prices of the house and land as some investors believe it is a haven asset during difficult times.
As the Kyat is depreciating on the US dollar, construction costs have risen. Consequently, the developers are facing supply chain issues.
The construction sector imports steel, cement, electronic appliances, machinery and others.
Meanwhile, three other import groups saw an increase. Myanmar imported consumer products worth over $307.765 million, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and palm oil. The imports of consumer products showed a slight decrease of $23.6 million as against the year-ago period.
Intermediate goods make up the largest share of Myanmar’s imports, with petroleum products and plastic raw materials being the main import items. This year, imports of raw materials soared to $482.66 million from $461 million registered during the year-ago period.
Over one month, raw materials worth over $306.3 million were also imported for the Cut-Make-Pack (CMP) garment sector, showing a rise of $217 million compared with the last financial year.
The top-10 import countries to Myanmar are China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Viet Nam, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the US, as per data from the Ministry of Commerce. — Htet Myat/GNLM