January exports exceed forecast, boost from China and Thailand
5 Mar 2019 (The Star Online) KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s exports in January rose at a faster-than-expected pace of 3.1% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM85.4bil, underpinned by expansion in exports to China, Thailand and South Korea, compared with a Bloomberg survey of a 0.6% contraction.
The Statistics Department announced yesterday that re-exports were valued at RM17.5bil (0.4%) and accounted for 20.5% of total exports. Domestic exports increased RM2.5bil or 3.9% to RM67.9bil.
MIDF Equities Research said the stronger performance of the domestic exports in January compared with the 2.7% increase on-year in December indicated a good start for this year as it only recorded a meagre growth of 0.8% in 2018.
“With the expected recovery in mining and agriculture goods, we expect domestic exports to continue its upward trend moving forward. Meanwhile, re-exports which have low domestic value-added grew marginally by 0.4% on-year, the lowest gain since June 17 mainly due to higher base effect.
MIDF Research said Malaysia exports growth was expected to remain steady with the increasing contribution of re-exports which established the importance of Malaysia in global value chain.
“On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, exports increased RM1.9bil (2.2%) from RM83.5bil. In seasonally adjusted terms, exports registered an increase of 7.9%.
“On a m-o-m basis, imports posted a growth of RM1bil (1.4%) from RM72.9bil. In seasonally adjusted terms, imports rose 2.6%,” it said.
The department said on a y-o-y basis, export growth was due to higher exports to China (RM919.4mil), Thailand (RM823.3mil), South Korea (RM775mil) and the United States (RM680.8mil).
On a y-o-y basis, higher imports were mainly from China (RM2.7bil), Saudi Arabia (RM1.2bil) and Taiwan (RM696mil). palm oil, the major commodity in this group of products also decreased RM651.3mil or 16.6% due to the decrease in average unit value (20.7%) as export volume increased 5.1%.