Electronics drive Malaysia’s exports to high of RM96bil

The Statistics Department says total exports in December increased by almost 11% over the same month in 2019.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s total exports hit a high of RM95.7 billion last month, driven by the electrical and electronics (E&E) sector, the Statistics Department revealed today.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said this was an increase of 10.8% over the same month in 2019.

He said imports grew by 1.6% to RM75 billion in December, after nine months of decline, with total trade amounting to RM1.8 trillion in 2020.

“In tandem with softer global demand and unfavourable external economic conditions due to Covid-19, Malaysia’s total exports in 2020 contracted by 1.4% to RM981 billion from the preceding year while imports declined by 6.3% or RM53.2 billion to RM796.2 billion.

“Total trade in 2020 reached RM1.8 trillion, shrinking by 3.6% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the trade surplus widened by 26.9% to RM184.8 billion, the largest trade surplus recorded thus far,” he said in a statement.

Uzir said most of the exports were to Singapore (RM2.2 billion), China (RM1.9 billion), the US (RM1.7 billion), India (RM1.62 billion), Hong Kong (RM1.60 billion) and the European Union (RM988.1 million).

He said imports from China continued to top the list at over RM2.1 billion, followed by India (RM772.9 million), Hong Kong (RM518.7 million) and Taiwan (RM466 million).

E&E products led exports at RM5.6 billion, followed by rubber products (RM3 billion) and palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products (RM2.6 billion).

Imports were also led by E&E products at over RM2.7 billion and chemical products (RM734.7 million). - FMT