Malaysia's external trade fairly well despite unprecedented scenario, says MITI

Senior minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said this could be attributed to the progressive opening of the economy and gradual recovery of external demand.

“In fact, exports in December was the highest monthly value recorded for 2020, with exports to China recorded a new high in 2020 and similar momentum was reported for the United States which posted the largest value in the last decade,” he said in a statement today.

Malaysia’s exports in December 2020 registered a double-digit growth of 10.8 per cent to RM95.74 billion, year-on-year (y-o-y).

This was the highest monthly export recorded in 2020 and the second highest export value ever registered after RM97.12 billion in October 2018.

Expansion in exports were seen to Singapore, China, the US, India, and Hong Kong.

Total trade in December 2020 expanded by 6.5 per cent to RM170.78 billion from December 2019, while imports increased by 1.6 per cent to RM75.04 billion.

Trade surplus surged by 64.9 per cent to RM20.7 billion and was the highest trade surplus ever recorded for the month of December.

On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, total trade, exports, imports and trade surplus recorded a double-digit growth of 12.2 per cent, 13.1 per cent, 11 per cent, and 21.4 per cent, respectively.

Mohamed Azmin said there was a significant export growth to the emerging markets, notably Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire.

Rubber products, electrical and electronics products, as well as palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products registered strong export expansion.