Malaysia’s September trade surplus climbs to 10-year high

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s exports rebounded by 6.7% year on year (yoy) in September 2018 to RM83 billion after a dip of 0.3% in the previous month, boosting the trade surplus to a 10-year high of RM15.3 billion, the Statistics Department said.

The surplus represents an 85.9% jump compared with the same month last year.

Imports, however, registered a decrease of 2.7% yoy to RM67.8 billion. This was the second lowest import value in 2018.

Total trade, which was valued at RM150.8 billion, increased RM3.3 billion or 2.3% in September 2018.

The export growth was contributed by expansion in exports to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and South Korea. Lower imports were mainly from India, South Korea, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates and the European Union.

The main products which contributed to the expansion in exports were electrical & electronic products (+6.5%); refined petroleum products (+20.5%); crude petroleum (+54.5%) and liquefied natural gas (+1.8%).

However, declines were recorded for palm oil and palm oil-based products (-11.5%); timber and timber-based products (-0.4%) and natural rubber (-1.9%).

The lower imports by “end-use” were mainly attributed to intermediate goods, capital goods, and consumption goods.

MIDF Research said export growth for Q3 averaged 5.3% yoy, moderated from 8.4%yoy in Q2. It was the lowest gain in seven quarters.

Looking at the final quarter of 2018, it expects exports to perform better than in the earlier three quarters.

“Amid higher base effects and signs of easing key global indicators, we foresee exports to expand by 7.3% this year (18.9% in 2017). This is supported by lower exports growth for the first nine months which registered at 6.5% compared to double-digit growth of 21.6% in the same period last year.

“The moderating pace is consistent with gradual rise in global commodity prices, expectation of slight slowdown in overall business performance on top of the heating Sino-US trade conflict.”