KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's total trade in March declined 1.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM232.72bil amid a contraction in both exports and imports with major trading partners.
The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti) announced today that exports for the month amounted to RM129.71bil, down 1.4% from the same month in 2022, while imports declined 1.8% to RM103.01bil.
However, Malaysia's trade surplus in March widened to RM26.69bil, its highest on record for the month.
Compared to February 2023, trade, exports, imports and trade surplus recorded double-digit growth of 13.5%, 15.5%, 11.1% and 36.4% respectively.
For the first quarter of 2023, trade grew 3.2% to RM644.87bil as compared with the same quarter in 2022.
Exports over the three-month period grew 2.8% to RM354.63bil while imports expanded 3.7% to RM290.24bil.
"Trade surplus edged down by 1% to RM64.39 billion. Trade, exports and imports registered the highest value for the period," said Miti in a statement.
Malaysia registered a 3% contraction in trade value with its largest trading partner, China, as exports shrank 6.2% to RM16.68bil as a result of lower exports of E&E products.
However, the US recorded a 5.2% increase in total trade with Malaysia, underpinned by 7.5% export growth to RM14.59bil on higher shipments of E&E products.
Major Asean markets that received more shipments of Malaysian goods included Singapore, which recorded 3.1% growth to RM20.74bil, and Indonesia, which registered an increase of 17.9% to RM4.88bil.
There was a decline across Malaysia's exports by sector in March.
Manufactured goods, which made up 84% of the total exports, decreased 0.4% y-o-y to RM108.96bil due to lower exports of electrical and electronic products, rubber products and wood products.
The decline was partially offset by higher exports of petroleum products, optical and scientific equipment as well as machinery, equipment and parts.
The export of mining goods and agriculture goods decreased 3.5% and 10.8% on a y-o-y basis to RM10.4bil and RM9.43bil respectively.
On imports, there was an 8.7% y-o-y decrease in received shipments of intermediate goods, including primary fuel and lubricants, to RM53.81bil.
Additionally, the import of capital goods and consumption goods were up 3.5% and 6.2% y-o-y to RM9.77bil and RM9.26bil respectively.
