KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — Malaysia’s imports grew by 20.4 per cent from January until August 2021 compared to the same period last year, according to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti).
In a statement, its minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said China continues to be the leading source of imports with a total of RM147 billion worth of products imported this year, an increase of 35 per cent, compared to last year’s RM108 billion.
Singapore was second at RM57 billion compared to last year’s RM48 billion, (18.2 per cent increase) while Japan was third at RM48 billion, (24.2 per cent increase).
Electrical and electronics as well as chemicals were the main categories of imported goods.
Electronics amounted to RM25 billion in August this year compared to RM21 billion last year while chemical products imports were RM7.9 billion this year compared to RM5.8 billion before.
Miti also announced that during the first eight months of 2021, trade with the European Union expanded by 25.2 per cent to RM115.38 billion compared to the same period of 2020.
Exports increased by 24.9 per cent to RM66.51 billion, buoyed by higher exports of rubber products, electrical and electronic products as well as palm oil-based manufactured products.
“Meanwhile exports to the Netherlands increased by RM528.7 million due to higher demand for palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products,” said Azmin.
“Belgium increase to RM118.8 million for petroleum products and Spain increased by RM59.3 million from palm oil-based manufactured products.”
This comes as the EU and two of its member states are restricting palm oil-based biofuels, which Putrajaya has claimed to be discriminatory.
