(RTTNews) - Malaysia’s exports increased at a slower pace in April, a report by the Department of Statistics Malaysia showed on Friday.
Exports increased 26.6% year-on-year to MYR 52.03 billion in April, slower than 36.4% in the previous month. Economists had expected an increase of 38%. This increase was mainly driven by higher exports of electrical and electronic products, crude petroleum, chemicals and chemical products, refined petroleum products and liquefied natural gas.
Similarly, imports surged 27% annually in April to MYR 42.80 billion, following a 45.3% gain in the previous month. This was mainly due to higher imports of intermediate goods. Economists were looking for an increase of 29.9%. Month-on-month, exports and imports decreased by 12.4% and 5.1%, respectively in April.
Thus, the trade balance showed a surplus of MYR 9.22 billion in April, registering its 150th consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997. However, the trade surplus was smaller than the MYR 14.32 billion recorded in the previous month.
For the January to April period, exports increased by 29.7% over a year earlier to MYR 210.74 billion while imports climbed 32.8% to MYR 162.58 billion. During the period, the trade surplus stood at MYR 48.15 billion.
The strong recovery in Asian demand, along with last year’s low base, has helped Malaysia in delivering such amazing export performance in recent months, DBS Bank said in a note today ahead of the release of the data.
Going forward, such strong export growth would start to moderate in the second half of the year, the bank said, as policy tightening is expected to take its toll on domestic demand in the region. Further, the weakness stemming from the European debt crisis may start to impact export performance from the third quarter onwards.
Malaysia’s economy grew at the fastest pace in a decade in the first quarter, prompting the central bank to hike its key interest rate for the second time this year. Gross domestic product grew 10.1% annually in the first three months of the year, faster than the 4.5% growth in the previous quarter.
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