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Malaysia’s exports grow 3.1pc in July


Bangladeshpost
Published : 29 Aug 2020 08:36 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 08:06 PM

Malaysia's exports rose for the second straight month in July, growing 3.1 percent year on year to 92.53 billion ringgit (about 22.18 billion U.S. dollars), official data showed Friday.

The Malaysia International Trade and Industry Ministry said in a statement exports of manufactured goods which accounted for 87.5 percent of total exports rose by 4.7 percent year on year in July.

Exports of agriculture goods surged 30.4 percent year on year, boosted mainly by exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.

Exports of mining goods, however, decreased by 30.2 percent year on year on lower exports of liquefied natural gas.

Total trade in July fell 2.2 percent year-on-year to 159.92 billion ringgit, as lower trade was recorded with Australia, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and Japan.

Malaysia's trade with China rose 1.9 percent year on year to 29.44 billion ringgit in July.

Its exports to China also surged 13.9 percent to 15.58 billion ringgit, driven by higher exports of iron and steel products, other manufactures, palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products as well as manufactures of metal.

"July's exports continued increase for the second consecutive month marks a positive development ahead that the worst of exports contraction is behind us," Socio-Economic Research Centre executive director Lee Heng Guie said in a note Friday.

While anticipating Malaysia's exports to contract 5 percent in 2020, he opined that the exports could surprise on the upside with a smaller decline of between minus 1 percent and minus 2 percent.

For the first seven months, Malaysia's exports declined by 6.2 percent year on year to 541.47 billion ringgit.