KUALA LUMPUR: Exports will remain growing at solid pace this year, given that economic performance in major as well as emerging economies are on uptick momentum together with gradual improvement in commodities prices, said MIDF Research.
The research house on Friday said it maintained its 2017 exports growth forecast ar 14.5%.
For the first time in 12 months, exports in May 2017 grew higher than imports, at 32.5% year-on-year compared to 30.4% year-on-year respectively.
On monthly basis, exports and imports as well as total trade expanded strongly by 7.5%, 13.3% and 10.2% respectively.
Based on current momentum, the research house said the average value of exports for the first five months was at RM75.6bil while 2016’s monthly average was at RM65.5bil.
“We expect exports will continue to performance well in the second half of the year.
“Continued broad-based recovery in global trade and stable commodities prices are among factors boosting our external trade performance,” it said in a report.
China and the US contributed 4.4% and 4.0% each to total exports growth, while Asean and the EU contributed 8.2% and 0.2% respectively.
The research house said it expects the global trade outlook for second half of 2017 will remain bright given that market confidence in major economies are upbeat and threat of protectionism slowly waning.
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