Malaysia’s total trade in 2022 recorded a new milestone to reach RM2.8 trillion, registering the fastest growth since 1994 at 27.8 per cent.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) cited today (Jan 27) that exports grew by 25.0 per cent from RM1.2 trillion in 2021 to RM1.6 trillion, performing better than forecast for 2022.
In its report dubbed ‘Malaysia External Trade Indices, December 2022’ the Statistics department stated, similarly, imports led higher with a value of RM1.3 trillion or by 31.3 per cent as compared to previous year.
Trade surplus reached an all-time high at RM255.1 billion, posted the surplus for 25th consecutive year since 1998.
Malaysia’s total trade grew at 8.6 per cent in December 2022, with the amount of RM236.0 billion as compared to RM217.4 billion in the same month of preceding year.
Exports increased by 6.0 per cent to RM131.9 billion in December 2022. Imports amounted at RM104.1 billion rose by 12.0 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y).
The Trade balance remained to record a surplus with a value of RM27.8 billion, despite the decrease of 11.8 per cent from the previous year.
In comparison to November 2022, exports and trade surplus increased by 1.7 per cent and 27.6 per cent, respectively.
However, imports and total trade showed declines. Imports shrank by 3.5 per cent while total trade decreased by 0.7 per cent.
The total trade, exports and imports for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022 posted increases as compared to the Q4 of 2021. Exports surged by 11.8 per cent to RM393.1 billion and imports with a value of RM325.6 billion, expanded by 18.7 per cent.
Consequently, total trade grew by 14.8 per cent to RM718.7 billion.
On the other note, trade surplus decreased by 12.6 per cent from RM77.4 billion to RM67.6 billion.
Terms of trade
Malaysia’s terms of trade showed an increase of 0.02 per cent month-on-month to 111.6 points in December 2022, as accordance to the increases in the index of animal & vegetable oils & fats (+9.0%), machinery & transport equipment (+1.6%) and inedible crude materials (+0.6%). Malaysia’s terms of trade maintained a positive growth of 4.2 per cent year-on-year from 107.1 points in December of previous year.
