PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s trade maintained its growth momentum in May 2025, driven by continued global economic growth and changes in demand for the country’s goods in international markets, the Department of Statistics Malaysia reported.
Total trade exhibited a 2.6% increase to RM252.5 billion from RM246.1 billion in the previous year, primarily driven by a 6.6% growth in imports to RM125.9 billion, while exports went down by 1.1% to RM126.6 billion. The trade surplus continued for 61st consecutive month since May 2020, although it decreased 92.3% to RM766.3 million.
Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said Malaysia’s export reduction in May was driven by a decrease in domestic exports.
Domestic exports, which accounted for 79.6% of total exports, were down by 4.7% to RM100.8 billion, while re-exports, making up 20.4% of total exports, increased by 16.1% to RM25.8 billion compared with May 2024.
Compared with April 2025, exports, imports, total trade and trade balance recorded decreases of 5.2%, 2%, 3.6% and 85.1%, respectively.
From the perspective of commodity group, 136 out of 258 export groups showed a decrease. Meanwhile, 118 out of 260 import groups showed an increase compared with the same month of the previous year.
Mohd Uzir said lower exports were attributable mainly to Singapore (-RM4 billion), followed by Japan (-RM1.8 billion), the Philippines (-RM719 million), China (-RM679.2 million), India (-RM557.2 million), Russia (-RM400.5 million) and Turkiye (-RM295.3 million).
Higher imports were mainly from the United States (+RM5.1 billion), followed by Taiwan (+RM3.2 billion), China (+RM3.0 billion), Kuwait (+RM685.2 million), Switzerland (+RM424.1 million), Mexico (+RM401.1 million) and Hong Kong (+RM352.7 million).
Commenting on exports, Mohd Uzir said the decrease was reflecting the declines in petroleum products (-RM3.3 billion), liquefied natural gas (-RM1.7 billion), chemical & chemical products (-RM952.5 million), crude petroleum (-RM730.5 million), iron & steel products (-RM377.3 million) and paper & pulp products (-RM279.2 million).
The increase in imports was logged for electrical & electronic products (+RM14.3 billion), metalliferous ores & metal scrap (+RM1.1 billion), other agriculture (+RM366.4 million), other manufactures (+RM321.7 million), jewellery (+RM228.6 million) and palm oil & palm-based agriculture products (+RM129.2 million).
Mohd Uzir also underscored the upsurge in imports by end-use which was in accordance with higher demand for capital goods. Imports of capital goods (18% of total imports), surged by 63.7% or RM8.8 billion to post a value of RM22.7 billion. However, imports of intermediate goods (51.8% of total imports), were down by 4.4% or RM3 billion to RM65.1 billion and imports of consumption goods (8% of total imports) registered a decrease of 1.1% or RM113.8 million to RM10.1 billion compared with May 2024.
Total trade, exports and imports for the period of January to May 2025 registered an improvement. Total trade grew by 6.2%, to RM1.23 trillion, in line with the rise in exports (+5.5%) and imports (+6.9%). However, the trade surplus decreased by 9.4% to RM46.9 billion compared with the same period in 2024.
