Ministry of International Trade and Industries released the latest trade figures indicating Malaysia’s resilience despite the challenging environment the world is navigating.
Performance in May 2022 remained resilient, recording the fastest growth since November 2021. Trade rose by 33.6% to RM228.37 billion compared to May 2021, the 16th straight month of double-digit growth. Exports increased by 30.5% to RM120.49 billion, the 10th consecutive month of double-digit expansion. Imports grew by 37.3% to RM107.88 billion while trade surplus contracted by 8.3% to RM12.62 billion.
Trade, exports and imports registered the highest monthly value for May. The export growth was driven by higher demand for electrical and electronic (E&E) products, petroleum products as well as palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture
products. Exports of petroleum products registered an all-time high monthly value. Exports to major markets notably ASEAN, China, the United States (US), the European Union (EU) and Japan recorded double-digit growth. On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, imports grew by 3.6%. Meanwhile, trade, exports and trade surplus slipped by 1.4%, 5.6% and 46.3%, respectively.
Total trade surpassed RM1 trillion in just five months, the shortest period to breach this milestone. For January to May 2022, trade, exports, imports and trade surplus registered the highest value for the period. Trade climbed by 25.1% to RM1.085 trillion compared to the same period last year. Exports jumped by 23.5% to RM592.97 billion and imports leaped by 27.0% to RM491.85 billion. Trade surplus edged up by 9.0% to RM101.12 billion.
Manufactured Goods – 10th Straight Month of Double-Digit Export Growth Exports of manufactured goods in May 2022 which represented 83.3% of total exports rose by 27.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM100.37 billion, the 10th straight month of
double-digit expansion. The growth was attributed to higher exports of E&E products, petroleum products as well as palm oil-based manufactured products, each recorded more than RM1 billion increase in exports. Exports of agriculture goods (8.9% share) increased by 43.9% to RM10.77 billion compared to May 2021, the 15th consecutive month of double-digit growth. The expansion was boosted by strong exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.
Exports of mining goods (7.3% share) soared by 54.9% y-o-y to RM8.76 billion, the 14th successive month of double-digit growth underpinned by growing exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude petroleum.
