KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — AmBank Research projected today that Malaysia’s domestic economy would grow around 5.5 per cent this year, while export was expected to grow around 5 to 6 per cent.

The research house said exports and imports continued to perform favourably with November’s export up for the 12th consecutive month at double digits by 20.4 per cent year-over-year (y-o-y), bringing the November’s trade balance at RM9.9 billion.

"We remain upbeat on the economic performance in part due to strong imports and capital up 12.2 per cent y-o-y, the fastest in four months whilst intermediate imports expanded by double-digit pace for 11th consecutive months by 13.8 per cent y-o-y, which act as an injection to the overall economic activity.

"The robust expansion in capital and intermediate imports falls in line with the 43-month high of the Purchasing Manufacturing Index which read at 52 points in November,” it said.

In addition, the electrical and electronics (E&E) segment of exports continued to expand strongly by 21 per cent y-o-y in November from 16.9 per cent y-o-y in October. This segment is envisaged to perform robustly, benefitting from the cyclical growth underpinned by a healthy external demand.

AmBank said exports were being supported by chemical and chemical products, which were up 20.2 per cent. Manufacture of metals rose 20.8 per cent y-o-y while petroleum products grew 1.2 per cent y-o-y. Besides, export volume grew strongly by 9.7 per cent y-o-y in November.