Malaysia’s total trade continued to register a double-digit growth in September 2022, expanding by 31.4 per cent, reaching RM256.9 billion as compared to RM195.5 billion in the preceding year.
Exports increased by 30.1 per cent to RM144.3 billion in September 2022 while imports amounted at RM112.6 billion rose by 33.0 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y).
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), which released the trade results in its Malaysia External Trade Indices, September 2022 report today (Nov 4), cited the trade balance continued to record a surplus, with a value of RM31.7 billion, an increase of 20.9 per cent from the previous year.
In comparison to August 2022, exports and trade balance increased by 2.2 per cent and 86.1 per cent, respectively. However, imports and total trade showed declines. Imports shrank by 9.4 per cent while total trade decreased by 3.2 per cent.
The total trade, exports, imports and trade surplus for the third quarter (Q3) of 2022 grew significantly as compared to the Q3 of 2021. Total trade rose by 42.0 per cent, exports (+38.3%), imports (+46.5%), while trade surplus grew 5.6 per cent.
For the period of January to September 2022, the performance of total trade, exports, imports and trade surplus remained resilient with double-digit growth. Total trade grew by 32.9 per cent, supported by the expansion in exports (+30.3%) as well as imports (+36.2%) while trade surplus grew 6.3 per cent.
A month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison showed that export unit value index rose 1.0 per cent in September 2022. The increment was contributed by the increases in the index of mineral fuels (+6.6%), machinery & transport equipment (+1.1%) and miscellaneous manufactured articles (+0.2%).
Consequently, the export volume index also increased 1.1 per cent in September 2022, which was supported by the rises in the index of animal & vegetable oils & fats (+13.5%), machinery & transport equipment (+9.2%) and chemicals (+2.5%).
The seasonally adjusted export volume index fell 4.9 per cent from 188.7 points to 179.5 points.
The import unit value index showed a positive performance of 0.03 per cent in September 2022. The marginal increment was contributed by the increase in the index of machinery & transport equipment (+1.0%), miscellaneous manufactured articles (+0.3%) and food (+0.04%).
Meanwhile, the import volume index fell by 9.4 per cent in September 2022 as compared to the previous month. The fall was contributed by the decreases in the index of mineral fuels (-29.8%), miscellaneous manufactured articles (-14.4%) and chemicals (-6.6%).
The seasonally adjusted import volume index in September 2022 fell 8.2 per cent from 213.4 points to 195.8 points.
Malaysia’s terms of trade increased by 1.0 per cent month-on-month to 113.0 points in September 2022, contributed by the rises in the index of mineral fuels (+7.6%), chemicals (+0.4%) and machinery & transport equipment (+0.2%). Malaysia’s terms of trade maintained a positive growth of 6.8 per cent year-on-year from 105.9 points in September of previous year.
