July 28, 2009

Bahrain ’s Trade with Japan Tops 1.3 Billion USD in 2008

The overall trade volume between Bahrain and Japan amounted to $1,347.9 million in 2008, showing a growth of 20% compared to last year and confirming Japan’s position as the Kingdom’s second largest trading partner(*). Such a leap is attributed to the large increase of import from Japan, which increased by 37.8% and reached around a billion dollar mark for the first time ever.

The trade statistics released by Japan External Trade Organization (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 USD 5.5 million) to the Japanese market, Japan’s imports of crude oil and petroleum products from Bahrain dropped by 11.6%, which led to an overall decrease of Bahrain’s exports by 3.3%.

The trade between the GCC countries and Japan also remained strong last year, increasing 28.4% to more than 27 billion USD in imports from Japan and 46.3% to more than 144 billion USD in exports to Japan.

Attachment
　Chart 1 : Trade between Bahrain and Japan in 2008
　Chart 2 : Trade between GCC and Japan in 2008