KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s exports in July posted their weakest performance in more than a year, well below expectations, as demand from China and Japan for key goods slumped, while imports shrank on lower domestic consumption.
Exports rose just 0.6 percent from a year earlier, the weakest since June 2013, while imports fell 0.7 percent, the first decline since May last year. A Reuters poll had forecast a 6.2 percent rise in exports, and a 5.0 percent gain in imports.
The trade surplus for the month was 3.64bn ringgit ($1.14bn), compared to 3.97bn ringgit in June, largely in line with the forecast of 11 economists of 4.0 billion ringgit.
Exports to China — Malaysia’s largest trade partner — fell 14.4 percent from a year earlier on lower shipments of metal, rubber, palm oil, chemical products as well as electrical and electronic products. Exports of liquefied natural gas dropped 22.9 percent from a year earlier, due to lower volumes sent to Japan.
“There could have been some plant maintenances done which affected the LNG and crude oil exports,” said Barclays Research economist Rahul Bajoria. “Overall there may be a pickup in exports later this year but it’s not going to be a much bigger figure,” he said.
The trade ministry, in a statement, said that “slower domestic economic activities” in China had contributed to the fall in exports to that pivotal market.
Exports of the country’s mainstay electrical and electronic products dipped by 1 percent due to lower demand from Singapore and China. Imports were pulled lower by a nine percent fall in consumption goods and a 17.9 percent plunge in capital goods.
Reuters
