Malaysia's April exports fall nearly 9% on-year (Update)

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's exports in April fell 8.8% on-year or RM5.9bil to RM60.4bil - which was sharply below economists' expectations of a 5.5% on-year fall - due to a slump in petroleum exports.

The Statistics Department said on Friday that on a month-on-month basis, exports also fell 9.2% or RM6.1bil from RM66.5bil in March. In seasonally adjusted terms, exports fell 3.4%.

The department said on a on-year basis, the decline in exports was due to the decrease in exports to Japan (-RM1.8bil), Singapore (-RM1.4bil), Hong Kong (-RM727.1mil), Taiwan (-RM445.0mil) and Philippines (-RM420.6mil).

It said refined petroleum products, which account for 4.5% of total exports, fell RM2.5bil or 48.2% to RM2.7bil. The main reasons were due to the fall in both export volume (-31.3%) and average unit value (-24.6%).

Liquefied natural gas (LNG), which contributed 5.3% to total exports, dropped 40.1% or RM2.1bil to RM3.2bil due to lower average unit value (-31.0%) and export volume (-13.3%);

Crude petroleum (3.2% of total exports), fell RM1.5bil (-43.7%) to RM1.9bil mainly due to the decline in both average unit value (-39.8%) and export volume (-6.5%).

Palm oil and palm-based products, which contributed 7.6% to total exports, declined RM876.8mil (-16.1%) to RM4.6bil. Exports of palm oil, the major commodity in this group of products fell 20.6% or RM722.8mil due to the

decrease in both average unit value (-14.5%) and export volume (-7.1%).

Meanwhile, electrical and electronics (E&E) products, which accounted 34.8% of total exports, decreased RM660.5mil (-3.0%) to RM21.0bil.

The department said natural rubber (0.4% of total exports), declined RM166.8mil (-38.3%) to RM268.9mil due to the decrease in both export volume (-24.0%) and average unit value (-18.8%).

As for imports in April, they fell RM4bil or 7% to RM53.5bil, which was in stark contrast to economists' survey of a 0.9% gain.

"On a month-on-month basis, imports were lower by RM5.2bil (-8.8%) from RM58.6bil. In seasonally adjusted terms, imports also decreased 7.2%," it said.

The decrease was mainly from Singapore (-RM1.1bil), South Korea (-RM930.5mil), European Union (-RM872.7mil), Australia (-RM726.2mil) and Russian Federation (-RM508.4mil).