KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia’s trade performance continued its growth momentum in July 2021 with total trade increasing by 13 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM180.96 billion — marking the sixth consecutive month of double-digit growth since February 2021.
According to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), exports grew by 5 per cent to RM97.32 billion, the 11th consecutive month of y-o-y expansion since September 2020, while imports rose by 24 per cent y-o-y to RM83.64 billion.
“On that note, trade surplus contracted 45.8 per cent to RM13.68 billion,” it said in a statement on Friday.
MITI said the export growth was backed by higher shipments of petroleum products, palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products as well as chemicals and chemical products driven by robust external demand.
Exports to major markets namely ASEAN, the European Union (EU) and Japan recorded positive growth.
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, it said imports increased by 0.5 per cent while trade, exports and trade surplus declined by 4.1 per cent, 7.7 per cent and 38.5 per cent respectively, it noted.
For the first seven months of 2021, MITI said trade expanded by 23.9 per cent to RM1.237 trillion from the same period last year.
“Exports grew by 25.9 per cent to RM682.9 billion and imports rose by 21.6 per cent to RM554.17 billion while trade surplus surged by 48.8 per cent to RM128.74 billion,” MITI said.
The Ministry said in July 2021, the export performance of major sectors had all recorded export growth.
“Exports of manufactured goods which represented 85.1 per cent of total exports, rose by 2.3 per cent y-o-y to RM82.85 billion with petroleum products, chemicals and chemical products as well as palm oil-based manufactured products registered more than RM1 billion expansion in exports,” it said.
Agriculture goods (8.7 per cent share) export recorded double-digit growth of 29.2 per cent to RM8.47 billion compared to July 2020, it said while mining goods export (5.8 per cent share) rose by 18.3 per cent y-o-y to RM5.65 billion.
On trade performance with major markets, MITI said in July 2021, trade with ASEAN grew by 10.5 per cent y-o-y to RM45.3 billion, contributed 25 per cent to Malaysia’s total trade with exports expanded by 7.9 per cent to RM27.65 billion, while imports from ASEAN rose by 14.7 per cent to RM17.65 billion.
In July 2021, trade with China recorded double-digit growth of 15 per cent y-o-y to RM33.89 billion which made up 18.7 per cent of Malaysia’s total trade, the eighth consecutive month of double-digit expansion.
“Exports to China contracted by 8.1 per cent to RM14.34 billion due to lower exports of petroleum products while imports expanded by 40.9 per cent to RM19.54 billion,” it said.
Trade with the United States in July 2021 increased by 1.8 per cent y-o-y to RM17.79 billion, representing 9.8 per cent of Malaysia’s total trade while trade with the EU which accounted for 8.3 per cent of Malaysia’s total trade in July 2021 increased by 19.7 per cent y-o-y to RM14.94 billion.
As for Japan trade in July 2021, which comprised 6.4 per cent of Malaysia’s total trade expanded by 15.7 per cent y-o-y to RM11.53 billion while exports up by 11.4 per cent to RM5.85 billion, the fifth consecutive month of double-digit y-o-y expansion since March 2021 attributed to higher exports of liquefied natural gas.
Imports from Japan increased by 20.5 per cent to RM5.68 billion.
Free Trade Agreement partners which made up 64.5 per cent of Malaysia’s total trade increased by 10.9 per cent y-o-y to RM116.68 billion.
(US$1= RM4.19)
— NNN-BERNAMA
