KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s exports in October breached the RM90 billion mark for the first time to hit a record high of RM96.38 billion, registering a jump of 17.7 per cent from RM81.86 billion in the same month last year, says the Malaysia External Trade Statistics report.
The report, released by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) today, said imports increased to RM80.05 billion from RM71.85 billion in the previous corresponding period.
“The trade surplus widened by 63.1 per cent to RM16.32 billion, the largest ever recorded thus far, making October the 252nd consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997,” it said.
MITI said total trade reached RM176.43 billion in October 2018, expanding 14.8 per cent from the same month last year.
“Higher trade was seen with Asean, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United States (US), India and the European Union,” it said.
October’s exports were mainly contributed by electrical and electronic products (E&E), which constituted 39.8 per cent of the total exports.
“The export value of E&E products in October 2018 was RM38.38 billion, a 23.3 per cent increase from October 2017,” MITI said.
Other major contributors to the country’s exports were petroleum products which soared 31.2 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM8.13 billion, chemicals and chemical products which surged 36.5 per cent y-o-y to RM5.68 billion and
manufacturers of metal that climbed 29.0 per cent y-o-y to RM4.38 billion.
However, exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture
products fell 17.3 per cent y-o-y to RM4.12 billion in the month under review.
MITI said China remained the top export destination for Malaysia, with the value of exports jumping to RM15.12 billion from RM11.37 billion in October 2017.
“This was followed by Singapore (RM13.37 billion from RM11.30 billion), the US (RM8.63 billion from RM8.02 billion), Hong Kong (RM7.32 billion from RM5.15 billion) and Japan (RM6.61 billion from RM6.0 billion).
“Exports to the US in October 2018 recorded the highest value in 11 years, which advanced 7.6 per cent y-o-y to RM8.63 billion, the highest monthly value since October 2007.
“Trade with Asean soared by 13.8 per cent y-o-y to RM48.82 billion and constituted 27.7 per cent of Malaysia’s total trade,” it added.
For the first 10 months of 2018, total trade expanded 6.5 per cent y-o-y to RM1.56 trillion, with exports increasing 7.5 per cent to RM829.89 billion, while imports rose 5.4 per cent to RM727.88 billion.
According to MITI, the trade surplus for this period climbed 25.6 per cent y-o-y to RM102.01 billion.
On a month-on-month basis, exports, imports and total trade recorded a double-digit growth of 16.2 per cent, 18.2 per cent and 17.1 per cent respectively, with the trade surplus increasing 7.2 per cent. –Bernama
