PETALING JAYA: Despite the Covid-19 doom and gloom, there was good news for Malaysia as exports rose by 4.3% in November compared to the same month last year, registering a total value of RM84.4 billion, said chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
It was third straight month to see higher exports compared to the corresponding month last year. In September, exports rose to RM88.9 billion, a 13.6% increase compared to last year. In October, it stood at RM91.1bil, a 0.2% increase from last year and a 2.4% increase from the earlier month.
Uzir said the external trade statistics, November 2020, shows the growth in exports was driven by re-exports, widening by 18.1% or RM15.4 billion of total exports.
Meanwhile, domestic exports, valued at RM69.1 billion, grew by 1.7% as compared to November 2019, he added.
However, Uzir said imports, which totalled at RM67.6 billion, continued to register a negative growth of 9%.
“This was the ninth consecutive month of decrease since March 2020. A significant decrease in imports has resulted in a higher trade surplus of RM16.8 billion,” he said.
With the challenging global economic conditions caused the pandemic, he said Malaysia’s total trade in November 2020 slipped by 2.0% from RM155.2 billion in November last year to RM152.0 billion.
The Statistics Department also reported that the expansion in exports was supported mainly by higher exports to the United States (+RM1.9 billion), Singapore (+RM1.8 billion), China (+RM1.7 billion), Hong Kong (+RM1.3 billion) and the European
Union (RM457.4 million).
Meanwhile, the decrease in imports were mainly from Singapore (-RM2.2 billion), the European Union (-RM1.1 billion), the United Arab Emirates (-RM846.3 million), China (-RM738.7 million) and the United States (-RM705.2 million).
The main sectors which contributed to the increase in exports were electrical and electronic products (+RM6.5 billion); rubber products (+RM2.9 billion) and palm oil-based agriculture products (+RM433.6 million).
The decrease in imports came from petroleum products (-RM4.1 billion); transport equipment (-RM1.1 billion); manufacture of metal (-RM629.7 million); machinery, equipment and parts (-RM563.1 million) and crude petroleum
(-RM499.8 million). – FMT