MANAMA - The overall trade between Bahrain and Japan amounted to $1,347.9 million in 2008, showing a growth of 20 per cent compared to last year and confirming Japan’s position as the Kingdom’s second largest trading partner, Japanese Embassy announced on Tuesday.
The embassy highlighted in a Press conference that such a leap is attributed to the large increase in imports from Japan, which increased by 37.8 per cent and reached around a billion dollar mark for the first time ever.
The trade statistics released by Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) showed that Bahrain’s imports from Japan reached $932.2 million in 2008. Japanese exports increased in every field including cars and machinery. During the same period, Bahrain’s exports to Japan were $415.7 million. Bahrain’s exports to Japan comprise mostly of crude oil, petroleum and aluminum products.Although, for the first time last year, Bahrain started to export liquefied propane (valued at $5.5 million) to the Japanese market, Japan’s imports of crude oil and petroleum products from Bahrain dropped by 11.6 per cent, which led to an overall decrease of Bahrain’s exports by 3.3 per cent.
Shamada@khaleejtimes.ae