According to the recent reports, Malaysia experienced an 11% increase in trade to RM204.99bil in February 2023 compared to the same month the previous year, as both export and import values reached new highs for the month.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) said in a statement that the country's exports increased 9.8% to RM112.28 billion due to high exports of petroleum products, electrical and electronic (E&E) items, and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Meanwhile, imports grew 12.4% year on year (y-o-y) to RM92.71bil in February, giving the country a trade surplus of RM19.56bil.
The trade surplus increased by 7.9% compared to January 2023, but trade, exports, and imports decreased by 1.1%, 0.3%, and 1.9%, respectively, due to shorter working days according to
export import data.
According to Miti, the increase in exports was driven by a 14.8% year-on-year increase in shipments to Asian countries to RM33.69bil, topped by a 27.7% increase in export value to Singapore.
This contributed to offset a 6% year-on-year drop in export value to China to RM14.36bil due to weaker exports of iron and steel goods, petroleum products, and chemicals and chemical products.
Nevertheless, exports to the US increased by 18.7% year on year to RM12.33 billion, owing to high shipments of E&E products. Manufacturing goods, which account for 85% of overall exports, increased 9.5% year on year to RM95.4bil, owing to strong exports of petroleum and energy products.
However, mining goods exports increased 34.8% year on year to RM9.2 billion due to increased LNG shipments, while agricultural goods exports decreased 9% year on year due to lower exports of palm oil and palm-oil-based farm products.