Total trade declines 2.4 per cent to RM131.67 billion in February

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s total trade in February 2018 fell 2.4 per cent to RM131.67 billion compared with the corresponding month last year, said the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).

In a statement yesterday, MITI attributed the weaker performance to the decline in trade with Asean, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia. However, it said that trade with several major trading partners, namely Hong Kong, European Union, China, South Korea and Taiwan, had increased.

“On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, exports, imports and total trade declined by 15.1 per cent, 16.2 per cent and 15.6 per cent respectively,” the ministry said.

Meanwhile, it said Malaysia registered a trade surplus of RM9.02 billion in February 2018, the 244th consecutive month of a trade surplus since November 1997.

Exports amounted to RM70.34 billion, marginally contracting by two per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) compared with RM71.79 billion previously. Imports decreased by 2.8 per cent y-o-y to RM61.32 billion.

The contraction in both exports and imports was mainly due to seasonal shorter working days during the Lunar festival.

Total trade for the first two months of 2018 stood at RM287.64 billion, a 6.3 per cent growth compared to the same period in 2017.

Exports increased by 7.8 per cent to RM153.16 billion, while imports rose by 4.6 per cent to RM134.48 billion.

Trade surplus surged by 38.7 per cent to RM18.69 billion compared to the corresponding period of 2017.

Exports of manufactured goods in the month under review increased by 1.5 per cent y-o-y or RM875.4 million to RM58.34 billion, accounting for 82.9 per cent of Malaysia’s total exports.

The expansion was mainly due to the growth in exports of petroleum products which increased by RM1.18 billion, as well as the rise in exports of metal, optical, scientific and transport equipment.

Exports of mining goods contracted by 10.2 per cent to RM6.14 billion, constituting 8.7 per cent of Malaysia’s total exports.

“This was mainly due to lower exports of liquefied natural gas as well as metalliferous ores and metal scrap.

“Exports of agriculture goods, which accounted for 7.4 per cent of total exports, contracted by 23.3 per cent to RM5.2 billion, on account of lower exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products,” MITI said.

On the performance of major markets, trade with Asean contracted by 8.3 per cent y-o-y, which accounted for 27.2 per cent of Malaysia’s total trade or RM35.81 billion.

Exports decreased by 5.8 per cent to RM20.33 billion, on the back of lower exports of machinery, equipment and parts, chemicals and chemical products, as well as palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.

Imports from Asean fell by 11.4 per cent y-o-y to RM15.48 billion.

Meanwhile, overall imports decreased by 2.8 per cent y-o-y to RM61.32 billion.

MITI said imports of intermediate goods decreased by 14.7 per cent y-o-y to RM32.82 billion or 53.5 per cent of total imports, following the lower imports of primary fuel and lubricants, particularly bituminous mineral waxes. — Bernama