Malaysia's October 2021 export value rose 25.5% year-on-year to a record high of RM114.4 billion in line with global economic recovery from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic-driven movement restrictions, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) on Monday.
In a statement, the DOSM’s chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the country’s import value was higher by 27.9% at RM88.2 billion.
Mohd Uzir said the nation’s total trade expanded to RM202.6 billion from RM160.1 billion."Trade surplus in October 2021, with a value of RM26.2 billion, marked the 18th consecutive month of trade surplus since May 2020,” he said.
"In accordance with the recovery in domestic economic activity, the month-on-month performance of exports, imports, total trade and trade surplus also [showed] positive growth, higher by 3.2%, 4.1%, 3.6% and 0.5%, respectively,” he said.
Between January and October 2021, Malaysia’s export value breached RM1 trillion in the first ten months of the year after expanding 25% from a year earlier, according to the DOSM’s statement.
The DOSM said the 10-month duration was the fastest period Malaysia’s export value breached the RM1 trillion mark.
"Consistent with the exports’ performance, imports also registered a double-digit growth of 21.8% to RM801.2 billion.
"Total trade expanded by 23.5% to RM1.8 trillion compared to the same period in 2020,” the DOSM said.
Mohd Uzir said in the statement the strong export value for the first ten months of 2021 was in line with global economic recoveries. The opening of economic activities in more countries signified better external demand, according to him.
"Along with outstanding performance, [Malaysia’s] exports in October 2021 maintained its steady growth momentum and outperformed September with another record high, with a value of RM114.4 billion, rising by 25.5% year-on-year. The expansion was driven by both domestic exports and re-exports,” he said.
In geographical terms, the DOSM said Malaysia’s October 2021 export value’s year-on-year rise was mainly due to higher exports to China followed by Indonesia, Australia, Japan, the United States, Turkey, Vietnam, the European Union, India and Singapore.
The DOSM said countries including China, Singapore, Indonesia and the United States continued to be major contributors to the increase in Malaysia’s import value rise.
"[In terms of products,] the expansion in exports was driven by petroleum products (+RM5.5 billion), manufacture of metal (+RM4.6 billion), electrical and electronic products (+RM3.4 billion), chemical and chemical products (+RM2.5 billion), palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products (+RM1.9 billion), liquefied natural gas (+RM1.5 billion), palm oil-based manufactured products (+RM1.3 billion), and machinery, equipment and parts (+RM1.2 billion).
"Meanwhile, the rise in imports were noted for electrical and electronic products (+RM8 billion), petroleum products (+RM4 billion), chemical and chemical products (+RM2 billion), iron and steel products (+RM815.4 million), and palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products (+RM625.9 million),” the DOSM said.
The expansion in Malaysia's imports by end use was sustained by higher demand for intermediate goods, capital goods and consumption goods, according to the DOSM.
"Imports of intermediate goods (54.7% of the total imports) totalled RM48.2 billion, increased by RM12.5 billion or 35.1%. Capital goods (9.4% of total imports) registered an increase of 15.1% from RM7.2 billion in the preceding year to RM8.3 billion.
"Imports of consumption goods, which amounted to RM7 billion, rose by 10.8% as compared to October 2020, and comprised of 7.9% of total imports,” the DOSM said.
Source: The Edge Markets
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