Malaysia's Jan. trade surplus rises 4.5% to 4.5 bil. ringgit

Asian Economic News, March 6, 2000

KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 Kyodo

Malaysia's external trade surplus in January rose 4.5% to 4.5 billion ringgit ($1.18 billion) from the 4.3 billion ringgit surplus recorded a year earlier, the Statistics Department said Wednesday.

It marked the 27th straight month in which Malaysia's trade balance has registered a surplus.

The January surplus stemmed from stronger growth in exports, which rose 3.6 billion ringgit from a year earlier to 25.5 billion ringgit, while imports grew by 3.5 billion ringgit to 21 billion ringgit.

Electrical and electronic products remained the country's biggest export earner, generating 14.1 billion ringgit, or 55.4% of total export earnings in January. The figure was up 14% from January last year.

Imports of intermediate goods increased 20.4% to 15.6 billion ringgit, while imports of capital goods rose 25% to 2.9 billion ringgit.

Lumpur imports and reexports, namely aircraft, ships and tankers, amounted to 181.11 million ringgit and 25.5 million ringgit, respectively.

According to the Statistics Department, if these transactions were excluded, a higher surplus of 4.6 billion ringgit would be recorded for January.