Posted on 30 Nov 2021
Malaysia’s exports surpassed the one trillion ringgit mark for the period of January to October 2021, up 25 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said this was "the fastest period export value breached the one trillion mark ever recorded.”
Imports also recorded a double-digit growth of 21.8 per cent to RM801.2 billion, he said in a statement today.
Total trade grew by 23.5 per cent to RM1.8 trillion compared to the same period in 2020, as reported today in the Malaysia External Trade Statistics Bulletin, October 2021.
"The strong export value for the first 10 months of 2021 was in line with global economic recoveries. The opening of economic activities in more countries signified better external demand," said Mohd Uzir.
Exports in October 2021 maintained its steady growth momentum and outperformed September with another record high value of RM114.4 billion, rising by 25.5 per cent y-o-y.
The expansion was driven by both domestic exports and re-exports. Domestic exports stood at RM91.3 billion and contributed 79.8 per cent to the total exports, widened by 23.3 per cent.
Re-exports registered RM23.2 billion, an increase of 34.8 per cent compared to October 2020, while imports was higher by 27.9 per cent y-o-y to RM88.2 billion.
Total trade expanded by RM26.5 billion to RM202.6 billion from RM160.1 billion in October 2020.
October 2021 saw a trade surplus of RM26.2 billion, marking the 18th consecutive month of trade surplus since May 2020.
In accordance with the recovery in the domestic economic activity, the month-on-month performance of exports, imports, total trade and trade surplus also showed positive growth, up by 3.2 per cent, 4.1 per cent, 3.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively, said Mohd Uzir.
DOSM said 173 out of 255 commodity groups for exports showed increases over the same month of the previous year. As for imports, 158 of 258 groups posted positive growth.
The agency also reported that the rise in exports was attributable mainly to the higher exports to China (+RM3.5 billion) followed by Indonesia (+RM1.9 billion), Australia (+RM1.6 billion), Japan (+RM1.5 billion), the United States (US) (+RM1.4 billion), Turkey (+RM1.4 billion), Vietnam (+RM1.3 billion), the European Union (EU) (+RM1.3 billion), India (+RM1.0 billion), and Singapore (+RM1.0 billion).
It said China continued to be the major contributor to the increase in imports (+RM4.4 billion), followed by Singapore (+RM3.6 billion), South Korea (+RM2.1 billion), Taiwan (+RM2.1 billion), the EU (+RM1.7 billion), Indonesia (+RM1.6 billion) and the US (+RM1.4 billion).
"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 & 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 was due to electrical and electronic products (+RM8.0 billion); petroleum products (+RM4.0 billion); chemical & chemical products (+RM2.0 billion); iron & steel products (+RM815.4 million) and palm oil & palm oil-based agriculture products (+RM625.9 million)," it said.
DOSM said imports of intermediate goods (54.7 per cent of the total imports) totalled RM48.2 billion, an increase of RM12.5 billion or 35.1 per cent.
"Capital goods (9.4 per cent of total imports) registered an increase of 15.1 per cent from RM7.2 billion in the (same period of) preceding year to RM8.3 billion,” it said.
Imports of consumption goods rose by 10.8 per cent y-o-y to RM7.0 billion and made up 7.9 per cent of total imports, it added.
Source:BERNAMA
