Malaysian trade surplus up, but exports slow

Malaysia's November trade surplus rose 40 per cent from last year and was up 15 per cent from the previous month but exports slowed towards the year-end, the trade ministry said Friday.

Malaysia posted a surplus of 5.58 billion ringgit (1.47 billion dollars) in November, up from 4.84 billion in October, the ministry said in preliminary figures released here.

November's figure also beat the 3.98 billion ringgit recorded in the same month in 2001 and marked the country's 61st consecutive monthly surplus since November 1997, it said.

In a statement, the ministry said exports eased to 31.13 billion ringgit, down 2.5 per cent from 31.92 billion in October. Imports slid at a faster pace of 5.6 per cent to 25.55 billion ringgit from 27 billion.

Higher exports of electrical and electronic products, machinery, rubber products and transport equipment offset declines particularly in exports of palm oil, crude petroleum and refined petroleum products, it said.

Electrical and electronic exports were up 0.7 per cent from October to 17 billion ringgit and remained the top revenue earner, accounting for almost 55 per cent of total exports in November.