KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s total trade in April 2017 expanded by 22.5 per cent to RM139.18 billion compared with the corresponding month last year, with exports increasing by 20.6 per cent to RM73.97 billion.
This was the fifth consecutive month that exports registered double-digit growth since December 2016, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said when announcing the country’s external trade statistics yesterday.
The trade surplus stood at RM8.75 billion, the 234th consecutive month of a trade surplus since November 1997.
Imports in March 2017 grew by 24.7 per cent to RM65.21 billion.
MITI said total trade for the first four months of 2017 surged by 23.8 per cent to RM569.68 billion compared with RM460.02 billion in the same period of 2016.
Exports rose by 21.2 per cent to RM298.65 billion and imports expanded by 26.9 per cent to RM271.03 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of RM27.62 billion.
Malaysia’s expansion in trade was seen with all major trading partners, namely Asean, China, Japan, India, the European Union (EU), and the United States (US).
“In April 2017, double-digit exports growth was registered for all major sectors, namely manufacturing, mining, and agriculture goods,” MITI said.
Export of manufactured goods grew by 17.3 per cent to RM60.48 billion compared with a year ago, accounting for 81.8 per cent share of total exports.
For mining goods, it increased by 51.8 per cent to RM6.49 billion, while the export of agriculture goods surged by 20.9 per cent to RM6.3 billion, led by palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.
Trade with Asean in April 2017 grew by 19.7 per cent to RM37.38 billion from a year ago.
Exports to the region expanded by 14.9 per cent to RM21.13 billion, contributed mainly by a significant growth in exports of electrical and electronic products, crude petroleum, as well as chemicals and chemical products.
Trade with China in April 2017 increased by 28.9 per cent to RM22.62 billion, trade with the EU amounted to RM12.91 billion, up 15.1 per cent, while trade with Japan increased by 27.4 per cent to RM11.47 billion with exports registering RM6.38 billion.
MITI said there was up to triple-digit expansion in exports to some Free-Trade Agreement partners, namely India, which grew by 23.6 per cent to RM2.86 billion, Turkey (144.6 per cent to RM905.4 million) and New Zealand (119.9 per cent to RM365.2 million).
In April 2017, the three main categories of imports by end use were intermediate goods valued at RM38.39 billion, accounting for 58.9 per cent of total imports.
It increased by 29.2 per cent due mainly to higher imports of parts and accessories of capital goods.
The others were capital goods, which grew by 14.8 per cent to RM8.01 billion, constituting a 12.3 per cent share due mainly to higher imports of capital goods except transport equipment, and consumption goods which rose by one per cent to RM5.66 billion, accounting for 8.7 per cent share, with higher imports of semi durables, particularly articles of plastics. — Bernama