KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s total trade from January-October 2016 was slightly lower at RM1.206 trillion compared to the RM1.210 trillion posted in the same period of last year.
The International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) in a statement said Malaysia also recorded a trade surplus of RM69.25 billion compared with RM73.04 billion for the same period of 2015.
“During the period, exports were lower by 0.6 per cent to RM637.55 billion from RM641.52 billion and imports decreased marginally by 0.1 per cent to RM568.03 billion from RM568.48 billion,” it said.
For October 2016, total trade increased by 0.1 per cent to RM128.63 billion, with exports rising 1.7 per cent to RM69.2 billion, the highest recorded thus far in 2016, while imports were 1.7 per cent lower at RM59.44 billion.
Trade surplus for the month under review widened to RM9.76 billion from RM7.56 billion in September 2016.
Miti said for the first ten months of 2016, exports of manufactured goods increased by two per cent to RM526.22 billion.
Manufacturing exports contributed 82.5 per cent to total exports as compared with 80.4 per cent during the same period last year.
Exports of agricultural goods rose by 1.6 per cent to RM56.93 billion, mainly on higher exports of palm oil and palm-based agriculture products.
Palm oil exports increased by 0.1 per cent to RM33.7 billion, attributed to a higher Average Unit Value (AUV).
However, the export of mining goods declined by 24 per cent to RM50.08 billion due to lower exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude petroleum as well as lower AUV.
For the January-October 2016 period, Malaysia’s trade with Asean declined by 0.6 per cent to RM328.58 billion compared with the same period of 2015, while trade with the United States rose 5.4 per cent to RM112.08 billion and with China, it rose 1.2 per cent to RM191.65 billion.
For the period under review, Malaysia’s trade with Japan was valued at RM97.84 billion as compared with RM104.95 billion in the same period of 2015. — Bernama