Mizzima
Myanmar Deputy Minister of Planning and Finance Maung Maung Win admitted that the economic sanctions imposed by the US government on two state-owned banks namely Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and Myanmar Investment and Commerce Bank (MICB) have had impacts on their government.
The minister was speaking at a press conference held by the Military Council’s True News Information in Naypyidaw on 22 August.
These sanctions had an impact on the country's earning and spending of foreign exchanges and all economic sectors, deputy minister Maung Maung Win said.
The economic sanctions had been imposed by the US government for no valid reasons, he claimed.
The US government sanctions say that they had imposed economic sanctions on MFTB and MICB in June 2023 and all ties with them must be cut and business transactions with these two banks must be stopped by 5 August.
Similarly, one of Singapore's leading banks, United Oversea Bank (UOB), announced early this month that they would cut ties and stop all transactions with banks in Myanmar starting from 1 September this year.
In the same way, Bangladesh state-owned Sonali Bank announced this week that they had frozen the accounts of MFTB and MICB opened at their bank.
The Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) governor Than Than Swe told business people at a meeting held in Naypyidaw on 19 August that the Military Council would do banking transactions with Indian and Thai banks after the Singapore and Bangladesh banks cut ties with Myanmar banks under pressure given by the US government.
The Myanmar Kyat depreciated after the US government-imposed sanctions on the two state-owned banks and also the US dollar exchange rate and gold price are rising sharply.
The US dollar exchange rate was just 1,300 Kyat against the dollar in January 2021 before the coup and it rose by nearly 300% to 3,900 Kyat against the dollar this week.
Junta head Min Aung Hlaing said on 15 August that some countries used dollars as a weapon in relation to the financial security of the country.
