M’sia maintains upward trade performance, expands 1.9% in Jan 2023

[superadmin]

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia maintained its impressive trade performance in January 2023 with trade, exports, and imports registering the highest monthly value for the month of January.

The International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) said in a statement today that trade expanded by 1.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM207.51 billion, with exports rising by 1.6% to RM112.84 billion and 2.3% higher imports to RM94.67 billion.

Miti noted that the trade surplus amounted to RM18.16 billion, a decrease of 2.1%, which marked the 33rd consecutive month of trade surplus since May 2020.

“The export expansion was bolstered by strong exports of petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as electrical and electronic (E&E) products.

“Exports to major trading partners, notably Asean and Japan, recorded double-digit growth. Compared with December 2022, trade, exports, imports, and trade surplus contracted by 11.8%, 14.4%, 8.6% and 35.5% respectively, due to shorter working days and long festive holidays,” it shared.

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