M'sia seen to face lower trade surplus due to US-China trade war

Major partners: Container ships seen at Port of Tanjung Pelepas. As an export-reliant nation, Malaysia’s exports accounted for close to 73 of its GDP last year, of which China and the US were the two biggest trading partners.

PETALING JAYA: Despite the escalation in the US-China trade war which may dent exports of emerging markets, Malaysia is poised to maintain a trade surplus for this year and 2019, albeit slightly lower than in 2017.

Towards this end, some economists told StarBiz that they are projecting a current account surplus of between 2% and 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2018 and 2019. Last year, current account surplus-to-GDP stood at 3%.