Myanmar's economy in shreds following military coup, pandemic

As the value of the kyat, the national currency, plummets, food inflation is harsh on the population hit hard by unemployment. Its lucrative tourism sector is paralysed.

The Asian Development Bank projects the country’s economy will shrink by 18.4 per cent this year, one of the deepest recent contractions anywhere.

UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths recently appealed to Myanmar’s military leaders to allow unimpeded access to more than 3 million people needing life-saving aid because of growing conflict and insecurity, COVID-19 and a failing economy. He was increasingly concerned about reports of rising levels of food insecurity in and around the cities.

An April report by foreign business firms in Myanmar showed the coup has hit all companies, regardless of whether they were domestic or foreign, and it is clear that the latter are mulling over leaving the country unless the situation stabilises.

The country’s financial year continued to be between April 1 and March 31 from 1974 to 2019, but the National League for Democracy government in 2018 changed the fiscal to between October 1 and September 30. The junta council made a U-turn on this decision and drew a mini budget for the six-month period from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022.

Myanmar has seen its foreign trade value decrease by nearly $310 million over the past one month in the current mini budget period as both export and import decline, according to the figures released by the country’s ministry of commerce.

The foreign trade value was $2.553 billion from October 1 to November 5 in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, whereas the same period of the previous fiscal saw up to $2.863 billion in foreign trade value. In comparison with last year, this year saw a decrease of over $309.766 million, according to media reports from the country.

From October 1 to November 5 this year, export value was just over $1.3 billion with a decrease of over $164 million and import value $1.25 billion with a decrease of over $145 million.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)