PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s exports rose by 1.7% year-on-year (yoy) in July to RM88 billion, while imports decreased 5.9% to RM73.7 billion, according to the Department of Statistics.
Total trade was valued at RM161.7 billion, a decrease of RM3.2 billion or 1.9% as compared to July 2018. Trade surplus stood at RM14.3 billion, up by 75.6% or RM6.1 billion from a year ago.
Malaysia’s chief statistician, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin revealed that the main products which attributed to the increase were electrical & electronic products (+RM1.5 billion), liquefied natural gas (+RM798.7 million), refined petroleum products (+RM174.4 million), natural rubber (+RM85.4 million) and timber and timber-based products (+RM23.7 million).
On the other hand, decreases were recorded for these products; crude petroleum (-RM1.7 billion) and palm oil and palm oil-based products (-RM544.5 million).
For the period, he stated that re-exports was valued at RM17.9 billion, a decrease of 3.9% yoy and accounted for 20.3% of total exports.
However, domestic exports increased 3.3% or RM2.2 billion to RM70.1 billion.
Meanwhile, the decreases in imports by end use was mainly attributed to capital goods
(-RM1.36 billion) followed by intermediate goods (-RM1.35 billion) and consumption goods (-RM333.7 million).
