Malaysia Exports Grow Less Than Expected In July

(RTTNews) - Exports in Malaysia increased less than expected while imports declined unexpectedly, data showed Friday.

Total exports rose 0.6 percent year-on-year in July, preliminary figures from the Department of Statistics revealed. This was less than the expected increase of 5.3 percent.

Exports of manufactured goods advanced by 2.1 percent annually in July and exports of agricultural goods gained 3.5 percent. At the same time, exports of mining goods fell 10.3 percent, driven by lower export volume to Japan.

Total imports dropped 0.7 percent year-over-year in July. Economists had expected imports to grow 4.7 percent.

Among major types of imports, imports of capital goods and consumption goods fell 17.9 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, imports of intermediate goods increased 2.6 percent.

Among import products, imports of electronic products declined while imports of petroleum products and chemicals and chemical products increased.

The trade balance showed a surplus of MYR 3.64 billion in July. This was more than the MYR 3.4 billion surplus expected by economists.

In the January to July period, the trade surplus totaled MYR 48.45 billion. Exports rose 10.7 percent and imports climbed 5.8 percent.