KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — Malaysia registered double-digit growth of 11.6 per cent to RM136.28 billion in trade in February this year compared to the same period last year backed by a sharp increase of 11.8 per cent to RM74.45 billion in exports and an 11.3 per cent to RM61.83 billion expansion in imports.

A press statement by the international trade and industries minister added that higher trade was recorded with the United States, Singapore, South Korea, China, Indonesia, India and Taiwan.

“Exports picked up sharply by 11.8 per cent to RM74.45 billion, compared to a 1.5 per cent decline in January 2020. This was the strongest year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in 16 months. Imports expanded by 11.3 per cent to RM61.83 billion.

“Trade surplus in February 2020 was valued at RM12.62 billion, grew by 14.1 per cent compared to February 2019. This was the largest trade surplus recorded for the month of February thus far and the 268th consecutive month of surplus,” said the statement.

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However, when compared to January 2020, trade, exports and imports posted a decline of 12.7 per cent, 11.5 per cent and 14.2 per cent, respectively while trade surplus increased by 4.9 per cent.

Over the past two months, trade has grown by 3.9 per cent toRM292.48 billion. Exports during the period registered an increase of 4.3 per cent to RM158.57 billion and imports rose by 3.5 per cent to RM133.91 billion.

The country’s trade surplus in January to February 2020 was valued at RM24.65 billion, expanding by 9.2 per cent compared to RM22.57 billion for the same period of 2019.

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Manufactured goods took up the lion’s share of total exports at 84.4 per cent while expanding by 13.3 per cent y-o-y to RM63.12 billion.

“Higher exports were recorded for almost all manufactured goods except for electrical and electronic (E&E) products (decreased by 2.7 per cent y-o-y) as well as beverages and tobacco.

“The main contributors to the increase were iron and steel products, optical and scientific equipment, petroleum products, machinery, equipment and parts, wood products as well as processed food,” said the statement.

Agriculture goods (7 per cent share) also registered a double-digit growth of 15.8 per cent to RM5.19 billion in export due to expansion in exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products, particularly palm oil which posted an increase of 17.1 per cent compared to February 2019.

However, exports of mining goods (7.6 per cent share) declined by 3 per cent to RM5.63 billion, mainly due to lower exports of crude petroleum. Exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the other hand, were higher by 7.1 per cent.

Although there was a strong y-o-y growth, looking at it from a month-on-month (m-o-m) there was a contraction of 11.1 per cent for the export of manufactured goods, 21.3 per cent for mining goods and 3.5 per cent for agriculture goods.