Malaysia’s trade in May grew to RM159.21 bln
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s trade in May grew by 2% from the same month a year ago to a record RM159.21 billion.
In a statement today, International Trade and Industries Ministry (Miti) said exports rose by 2.5% to RM84.15 billion, the highest export value ever registered for the month of May.
Imports expanded by 1.4 percent to RM75.06 billion, and faster export growth as compared to imports resulted in a higher trade surplus of RM9.08 billion, surging by 11.9% compared to May last year.
“On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, imports increased by 1%, while total trade, exports and the trade surplus slipped by 0.2%, 1.2 per cent and 16%, respectively,” Miti said.
For the first five months of 2019, total trade increased by 0.1% to RM753.88 billion compared to the same period of 2018, while exports grew by 0.3% to RM405.36 billion.
Imports shrank by 0.3% to RM348.52 billion and the trade surplus rose by 4.3% to RM56.85 billion during the period.
Miti revealed that exports of manufactured goods in May accounted for 84.2% of total exports which grew by 3.1% to RM70.87 billion, driven mainly by higher exports of iron and steel products, machinery, equipment and parts, transport equipment, chemicals and chemical products, as well as processed food.
Exports of agriculture goods (7.5% share) posted a double-digit growth of 15.3% to RM6.28 billion after registering 15 consecutive y-o-y declines since February 2018.
This was driven mainly by higher exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products, especially palm oil, which surged by 20.8% to RM3.85 billion following higher volume.
As for major exports in May, electrical and electronics (E&E) products valued at RM29.34 billion constituted 34.9% of total exports, an increase of 0.5% from May 2018. Petroleum products at RM6.89 billion and 8.2% of total exports, decreased by 14.9%.
Chemicals and chemical products registered RM4.86 billion or 5.8% of total exports, an increase of 7.7%, while palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products were at RM4.27 billion (5.1% of total exports) and an increase of 17.5%.
On the trade performance with major markets, Malaysia’s trade with ASEAN in May accounted for 27.4% of the country’s total trade which rose by 4.6% y-o-y to RM43.69 billion.
Exports to ASEAN rose by 4.7% to RM24.78 billion, owing to higher exports of iron and steel products, machinery, equipment and parts, transport equipment, petroleum condensates and other petroleum oil as well as Liquefied Natural Gas.
Imports from ASEAN increased by 4.4% to RM18.91 billion.
In May, trade with China which comprised 16.7% of Malaysia’s total trade or RM26.56 billion, a dip of 2.2% y-o-y.
Exports totalled RM11.28 billion, decreasing by 2.2% due to lower exports of E&E products, and the manufacture of metal as well as petroleum products
Imports from China contracted by 2.1% to RM15.28 billion.
Total trade with the European Union (EU) which accounted for 9.9% of Malaysia’s total trade in May, slipped by 0.8% y-o-y to RM15.72 billion.
Exports dropped by 6.3% to RM8.36 billion, underpinned by lower exports of petroleum products and the manufacture of metal.
Trade with the United States in May grew by 21.1% y-o-y to RM14 billion, constituting 8.8 % of Malaysia’s total trade, of which, exports registered a double-digit growth of 11.7% to RM7.82 billion.
Bernama
