KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — Firming global demand will likely lift the country’s full-year export growth, with real exports expected to pick up pace to +5.3 per cent in 2014 from +0.6 per cent in 2013, RHB Research House said.

The global economy was envisaged to sustain its growth at a slightly faster pace in 2014 in tandem with the International Monetary Fund’s projection of world trade volume picking up to 4.5 per cent this year and accelerating to +5.2 per cent in 2015, the research house said in a statement here today.

It said global semiconductor sales picked up to a double-digit growth of 10.8 per cent year-on-year in June, faster than +8.8 per cent in May, led by a double-digit rate rise in sales in the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

This will likely lift the growth of Malaysia’s electrical and electronic (E&E) exports as global economic recovery gains further traction. Demand from regional economies will lend support to non-E&E manufactured exports.

As a whole, after a strong pick-up in the first half of 2014, Malaysia’s export growth was envisaged to moderate in the second half, as the effect of a weaker currency faded and a higher base effect set in, the research house said.

The Department of Statistics today announced Malaysia’s exports recorded a double-digit growth of 12.5 per cent to RM380.14 billion in the first half of 2014 against a 4 per cent decline in the corresponding period last year.

The growth in exports was broad-based, with all sectors and major markets recording increases. Malaysia registered a strong trade performance in the first half of 2014, with total trade expanding 9.9 per cent from the corresponding period in 2013 while trade surplus improved by 81.8 per cent, the department said in a statement today. — Bernama