Brunei exports down 47.8% in July

Leo Kasim
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN


BRUNEI’S exports in July fell 47.8 per cent to $647.4 million on a year-on-year basis owing to a sharp decline in oil and gas exports, according to data from the Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE).

The latest International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) published by the department disclosed oil and gas export revenues, which account for over 90 per cent of the sultanate’s exports, declined by 49.5 per cent to $593.4 million.

Export value for crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) declined by 60.9 per cent and 37 per cent respectively.

Lower global prices of both crude and LNG squeezed Brunei’s oil and gas export revenues.

The export price of crude oil decreased by 46.7 per cent, from US$110.58 per barrel in July 2014 to US$58.91 per barrel in July 2015. Likewise, LNG prices declined by 44.3 per cent year-on-year from US$16.56 per million metric British thermal units (MMBtu) to US$9.23 MMBtu.

JPKE said trade volume of crude oil declined to 97.60 kbbl (thousand barrels) per day in July from 145.09 kbbl per day during the same month last year. This is the lowest trade volume so far this year.

But trade volume of LNG slightly increased by 1.6 per cent year-on-year to 887,420 MMBtu/day in July.

Most of Brunei’s exports went to Japan, which accounted for 28.3 per cent of the sultanate’s export market. This was followed by South Korea, with 23.5 per cent and India, with 15.2 per cent.

Merchandise imports decreased by 27.4 per cent from $477.2 million to $346.6 million. JPKE attributed this to lower imports for mineral fuels which fell by 69.4 per cent from $53.2 million to $16.3 million.

More than 20 per cent of Brunei’s imports came from Malaysia. This was followed by Singapore and China which accounted for 16.3 per cent and 14.2 per cent respectively of total imports.

Total trade narrowed by 42.1 per cent from $1.7 billion in July 2014.

The IMTS for Brunei Darussalam adopts the General System for recording trade statistics which cover imports, domestic exports and re-exports. The IMTS full report for July 2015 is available from JPKE’s website www.depd.gov.bn.


Sumber - The Brunei Times