KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia exports rose 2.2% to RM84.5bil in March, exceeding Bloomberg's survey of a 2% increase, underpinned by higher exports of electrical and electronic (E&E) products and crude petroleum.
The Statistics Department reported on Friday that E&E products, which accounted for 37.7% of total exports, increased by RM2.5bil (+8.7%) to RM31.8bil.
Crude petroleum, which contributed 4.3% to total exports, rose by RM562.2mil or 18.4% to RM3.6bil. The higher exports were due to an increase in export volume (+14.2%) and average unit value (+3.7%).
On a year-on-year basis, exports rose due to higher exports to Hong Kong (+RM2.4bil), European Union (+RM454.4mil), Thailand (+RM405.4mil), India (+RM340.5mil) and South Korea (+RM288.2mil).
Re-exports in March 2018 totalled RM16.1bil and accounted for 19.1% of total exports. Domestic exports fell 2.6% (-RM1.9bil) to RM68.4bil.
“On a month-on-month basis seasonally adjusted terms, exports grew RM2.7bil (+3.5%) to RM80.1bil,” it said.
However, the department pointed out that imports fell RM7.4bill (-9.6%) to RM69.8bil compared with the Bloomberg forecast of a 3.2% decline.
Lower imports were mainly from the US (-RM3.9bil), China (-RM2.7bil), South Korea (-RM648.9mil), Vietnam (-RM518.3mil) and Brazil (-RM415.7mil).
Imports fell 9.6% from RM77.2bil mainly attributed to intermediate goods, capital goods and consumption goods.
Intermediate goods, which constituted 52.8% of total imports dropped RM6.2bil (-14.4%) to RM36.9bil. The decrease was mainly attributed to parts and accessories of capital goods (except transport equipment) (-RM4.3bil, -27.3%),
fuel & lubricants, processed, others (-RM899.3mil, -36.4%), food & beverages, processed, mainly for industries (-RM678.5mil, -44.9%) and parts and accessories of transport equipment (-RM584.9mil, -19.3%).
Imports of capital goods, which accounted for 13.5% of total imports, fell RM4.1bil (-30.5%) to RM9.4bil due to the decline in both capital goods (except transport equipment) (-RM3.8bil, -32.9%) and transport equipment, industrial (-RM380.9mil, -18.0%).
Imports of consumption goods which accounted for 7.6% of total imports recorded a decrease of RM758.6mil (-12.4%) to RM5.3bil. The decline was mainly due to semi-durables (-RM285.6mil, -24.1%), durables (-RM223.6mil, -26.4%), non-durables (-RM148.3mil, -10.1%) and food & beverages, primary, mainly for household consumption (-RM120.3 million, -13.1%).
On a month-on-month basis, imports rose RM8.5bil (+13.8%) from RM61.3bil. In seasonally adjusted terms, imports declined 2.1%.
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