KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s exports rose to an all-time high of RM83.50bil in November 2017, up 14.4% from a year ago with manufactured goods underpinning the growth while exports to China remained resilient.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry announced on Friday the RM83.5bil in exports was the highest monthly export value ever recorded after the RM82.62bil in March 2017.
Imports rose by 15.2% to RM73.55bil, due to an increase in imports of intermediate goods, which rose 13.8% to RM40.39bil or 54.9% of total imports.
Driving the imports were higher imports of processed industrial supplies, particularly articles of copper;
Imports of capital goods rose 12.2% to RM10.29bil while consumption goods increased by 6.6% to RM6.55bil. The main increases were due to higher imports of processed food and beverages mainly for household consumption especially meat and edible meat offal.
The trade surplus for November amounted to RM9.95bil, the 241st consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997.
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, total trade, exports and imports expanded by 1.9%, 1.5% and 2.4%, respectively.
Growth was mainly buoyed by trade with Asean, the European Union (EU), China, Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, the US and Taiwan.
Total trade for the first 11 months of 2017 amounted to RM1.622 trillion, grew by 20.8% compared with the same period of 2016. Exports totalled RM856.05bil, surged by 20.4% while imports stood at RM766.07bil, rose by 21.2%.
“Trade surplus of RM89.98bil was recorded, higher by 13.6% compared to the corresponding period of 2016. The total value of trade, exports, imports and trade balance for the first 11 months of 2017 had surpassed that of the whole of 2016, respectively,” the Statistics Department said.
The department said exports of manufactured goods in November 2017 increased by 18.2% or RM10.63bil year-on-year to RM68.98bil, accounting for 82.6% of alaysia’s total exports.
It said the growth was mainly on account of higher exports of electrical and electronic (E&E) products and chemicals and chemical products, collectively contributing 55% to total of manufactured exports.
All subsectors registered growth in exports except for processed food and jewellery.
Exports of mining goods contracted marginally by 0.9% to RM7.04bil, constituting 8.4% of Malaysia’s total exports while exports of agriculture goods decreased by 2.5% to RM6.73bil, with a share of 8.1% of total exports due mainly to lower exports of palm oil by 2.1%.
In the first 11 months of 2017, exports of manufactured goods expanded by 20.3% to RM703.08bil compared with the corresponding period of 2016.
In November 2017, trade with Asean rose by 21.9% to RM44.22bil, compared with November 2016, accounting for 28.2% of Malaysia’s total trade.
Exports increased by 18.3% to RM24.72bil with all main sectors posted double digit growth and the strong export performance were seen for E&E products which increased by 30.3% or RM1.96bil.
Trade with China increased by 8.2% y-o-y to RM26.65bil, making up 17% of Malaysia’s total trade in November 2017.
Exports to the country expanded by 3.3% to RM11.3bil, led by higher exports of E&E products, rubber products, chemicals and chemical products as well as LNG.
Imports from China increased by 12.1% to RM15.35bil.
Malaysia’s trade with the EU in November 2017 amounted to RM15.22bil or 9.7% of Malaysia’s total trade, an increase of 15.7% from November 2016.
During the first 11 months of 2017, imports amounted to RM766.07bil, an increase of 21.2% from the corresponding period of 2016. Intermediate goods totalled RM440.61bil, increased by 22.2%, capital goods (RM103.55bil, 13.5%) and consumption goods (RM64.82bil, 7%).
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