English
Malaysia’s July exports exceed forecast with 1.7% growth to nearly RM88b
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s July exports expanded by 1.7% to RM87.96bil from a year ago, exceeding a Bloomberg forecast of a 2.5% on-year decline.
The Minister of International Trade and Industry said in a statement on Wednesday it was the highest export value ever recorded for July.
“Expansion in exports was contributed mainly by higher exports to Taiwan, the United States (US), China and Singapore,” it said.
MITI said however, imports contracted by 5.9% to RM73.69bil, which was also above the forecast of a 7% decline.
Trade surplus surged by 75.6% to RM14.27bil and this was the 261st consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997. Total trade was valued at RM161.65bil, a decline of 1.9%.
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, total trade, exports and imports registered a double digit growth of 14%, 15.5% and 12.3%, respectively. Trade surplus rose by 35.8%.
“Exports of manufactured goods in July 2019 which accounted for 86.1% of total exports, grew by 3.8% to RM75.7bil. The expansion was contributed mainly by higher exports of electrical and electronic (E&E) products, iron and steel
products, processed food, machinery, equipment and parts as well as transport equipment,” it said.
Exports of mining goods (7.5% share) was fell by 11.6% to RM6.6bil due to reduced exports of crude petroleum due to lower volume and Average Unit Value (AUV).
Also exports of agriculture goods (5.7% share) fell by 9.3% to RM4.97bil due to lower exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products, especially palm oil which recorded a decline of 14.2% to RM2.59bil following lower AUV.
MITI said E&E products totalled RM36.04bil (41% of total exports), an increase of 4.5% from July 2018.
Petroleum products registered RM6.38bil in exports (7.3% of total exports), an increase of 2.8%.
Chemicals and chemical products were RM4.88bil (5.6% of total exports) increased by 1.9%;
Machinery, equipment and parts, RM3.74bil (4.2% of total exports), increased by 6%.
Manufactures of metal, RM3.59bil, 4.1% of total exports, decreased by 4.1%.
China trade
“In July 2019, trade with China which represented 17.6% of Malaysia’s total trade or RM28.5bil, increased marginally by 0.2% y-o-y.
“Exports was valued at RM13.34bil, expanded by 3.8% on higher exports of manufactures of metal, petroleum products and LNG. Imports from China declined by 2.8% to RM15.16bil,” it said.
US trade
On trade with the US, MITI said it grew by 4.2% y-o-y to RM14.05bil, accounting for 8.7% of Malaysia’s total trade.
Exports expanded by 7.9% to RM8.36bil, buoyed by higher exports of E&E products, wood products, transport equipment as well as manufactures of plastics.
Imports from the US dropped marginally by 0.8% to RM5.69bil.
Compared to June 2019, trade, exports and imports increased by 9.7%, 9.4% and 10.3%, respectively.
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Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2019/09/04/malaysia039s-july-exports-exceed-forecast-with-17-growth-to-nearly-rm88b