BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- For the month of September 2018, Brunei recorded 101.1 million Brunei dollars (73.7 million U.S. dollars) trade balance from 204.4 million Brunei dollars in September 2017, a 50.5 percent year-on-year decrease.

The exports amounted to 644.1 million Brunei dollars in September 2018, a 1.6 percent year-on-year increase. Mineral fuels recorded the highest contribution with 567.5 million Brunei dollars, or 88.1 percent of total exports, according to the latest statistics released on Friday by the Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE) at the Ministry of Finance and Economy.

"Major exports decreased by 5.7 percent in September 2018, which was mainly due to a drop in the exports of liquefied natural gas by 29.8 percent. However, exports of crude oil increased by 28.8 percent," a JPKE official told Xinhua.

The biggest export market was Japan with 31.3 percent of total exports, followed by Singapore (24.5 percent), Thailand (14.8 percent) and Malaysia (10.4 percent).

In September 2018, total imports were valued at 543.0 million Brunei dollars, a 26.4 percent year-on-year increase.

The highest imports came from China with 45 percent of total imports, followed by Singapore (15.4 percent) and United States (12.8 percent). (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.58 Brunei dollars)