The trade surplus in Brunei increased to BND 327.0 million in April 2019 from BND 190.5 million in the same month of the previous year. Exports jumped 24% from a year earlier to BND 748.5 million, mainly led by higher sales of mineral fuels (26.2%), namely crude oil (8.8%) and LNG (41.8%). Among major trading partners, shipments advanced to Japan (37.9%), Thailand (233%) and Australia (46.3%). Meantime, imports went up 2% to BND 421.5 million driven by higher purchases of machinery & transport equipment (9.6%); miscellaneous manufactured articles (35.3%); and mineral fuels (4.8%). Purchases went up mainly from Japan (381%), Malaysia (2.2%) and Singapore (5.5%). Considering January to April period, the trade surplus widened to BND 1.63 billion from BND 1.30 billion in the same period of 2018, as exports went up 19.1% year-on-year to BND 3.28 billion while imports rose at a softer 13.6% to BND 1.65 billion. Balance of Trade in Brunei averaged 857.30 BND Million from 2005 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 2971.45 BND Million in September of 2008 and a record low of 34.10 BND Million in July of 2015.
Balance of Trade in Brunei is expected to be 217.90 BND Million by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Balance of Trade in Brunei to stand at 220.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Brunei Balance of Trade is projected to trend around 140.65 BND Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.