20 minutes
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s export grew 27.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) in June 2021, in line with global economic recoveries, according to the Statistics Department.
“The opening of economic activities in more countries signified better external demand,” said chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
The rise in exports was driven by both domestic exports and re-exports. In June, domestic exports were valued at RM84.7 billion – contributing 80.3% to the total exports – and grew by 21%, y-o-y. Re-exports stood at RM20.8 billion, an increase of 61.2%.
Imports for the month amounted to RM83.2 billion, up by 32.1% as compared to June 2020, outpacing export growth for two consecutive months. Trade surplus increased by 11.7%.
The country’s total trade expanded by 29.3% y-o-y to reach RM188.7 billion. In addition, the month-on-month (m-o-m) performance of exports, imports, total trade and trade surplus were also showing an upward trend of 14.3%, 5.9%, 10.4% and 61.7%, respectively.
“In conjunction to the growth, 144 out of 254 commodity groups for exports showed increases as compared to the previous year. As for imports, 200 out of 257 groups posted positive growths.”
The rise in export was mainly attributed to the US with an increase of RM3.1 billion, China (RM2.7 billion), India (RM1.8 billion), the European Union (RM1.7 billion), Singapore (+RM1.7 billion) and Australia (+RM1.4 billion).
The rise in imports was led by China which saw a RM6.1 billion increase, Indonesia (RM2.4 billion), Korea (+RM2.1 billion), the European Union (+RM2 billion), Japan (+RM1.4 billion) and Taiwan (+RM1.3 billion).
It added that the expansion in exports was driven by petroleum products at RM5.1 billion, electrical & electronic products (RM4.6 billion); rubber products (RM3.7 billion); palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products (RM2.4 billion); chemical and chemical products (RM2.3 billion); palm oil-based manufactured products (RM1.3 billion) and manufacture of metal (RM1.3 billion).
Meanwhile, rise in imports were noted for petroleum products at RM4.5 billion, electrical & electronic products (RM3.6 billion); chemical & chemical products (RM2.9 billion); manufacture of metal (RM1.6 billion); transport equipment (RM1.4 billion) and rubber products (RM976.7 million).
On the same note, expansion in imports by end use was sustained by higher demand primarily for intermediate goods which rose 25.3% to account for 52.5% or RM43.7 billion of total imports, and consumption goods which account for 8.8% of total imports that grew 19.2% to RM7.3 billion. Meanwhile, imports of capital goods amounted to RM8.6 billion, a 15.2% increase y-o-y and comprised 10.3% of total imports.
Overall performance in Q2’21 registered a significant increase over Q2’20 as exports, imports, total trade and trade surplus expanded by 44%, 33.3%, 39% and 122.7%, respectively.
It also released the final trade statistics for 2020, in which exports declined by 1.1% to RM983.8 billion against the preceding year and imports shrank 5.8% to RM800.4 billion, while total trade ended 3.3% lower at RM1.9 trillion. In addition, trade surplus accelerated by 25.9% to RM183.3 billion.
UOB Research said June’s export performance wasn’t hindered by the full movement control order as severely as it had expected. Yet, a substantial m-o-m increase in last month’s export value (by RM13.2 billion) was made against a sizeable m-o-m decline in May (by -RM13.3 billion).
