Malaysian Trade Surplus Narrows On Higher Imports In July

Sep 4, 2007 - The Malaysian trade surplus narrowed on higher imports in July, official data indicated Tuesday.

The trade surplus narrowed to 7.98 billion ringgit in July from 8.78 billion ringgit recorded in June, the Department of Statistics said. The report noted that the trade balance showed surplus for the 117th straight month since November 1997.

Imports climbed 5.3% to 42.54 billion ringgit from June. On an annual basis, imports were up 2.5%. Imports of intermediate goods were valued at 30.47 billion ringgit and capital goods imports amounted to 6.01 billion ringgit.

Exports grew 2.7% from the prior month on account of significant growth in exports of palm oil, liquefied natural gas, crude petroleum and electrical and electronic products. Electrical and electronic products accounted for 43.3% of total exports were valued at 21.85 billion ringgit. Meanwhile, overseas shipments dropped 0.02% annually compared to a 0.1% fall registered in the prior month. Economists were looking for an annual growth of 0.6% in exports. ASEAN, the U.S., the European Union, Japan, the People's Republic of China were the major export markets in July. Exports to ASEAN climbed 2.9%, while exports to the U.S advanced 1.5% from June.

Total trade amounted to 93.06 billion ringgit in July, up 3.9% from the prior month.

During the first seven months of 2007, exports totaled 333.65 billion ringgit and imports amounted to 281.99 billion ringgit, resulting in a trade surplus of 51.66 billion ringgit.