(Kuala Lumpur, 20th) The Statistics Department announced that Malaysia’s total trade volume grew 5.9% to RM223.9 billion in February this year, reflecting improved global demand and stable domestic economy. Mainly due to the growth of imports and exports.

Among them, exports grew 6.2% year-on-year to RM118.3 billion, and imports rose 5.5% year-on-year to RM105.6 billion.

The trade surplus grew 12.2% year-on-year to RM12.6 billion.

For the first two months, the total trade volume reached RM465.9 billion, an increase of 4.4% year-on-year, in line with the growth of exports and imports of 3.1% and 5.9% respectively.

The trade surplus fell 24% in the first two months

In contrast, the accumulated trade surplus for the first two months fell 24% to RM16.3 billion.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir said the export growth in February was driven by growth in domestic exports and re-exports.

“Domestic exports grew 5.9% to RM97 billion, accounting for 82% of total exports, while re-exports, which accounted for 18%, grew 7.3% to RM21.3 billion.”

Monthly, exports, imports and total trade fell 3.7%, 11.3% and 7.5% respectively, while the trade surplus increased significantly by 244.8%.

Imports of capital goods grew 35.3%

Looking at commodity categories, 134 of the 256 export categories grew, while 135 of the 259 import categories grew.

Uzir added that the surge in imports of manufactured goods was in line with the increase in demand for capital goods, consumer goods and semi-finished products.

Capital goods imports accounted for 13.1% of total imports, up 35.3% year-on-year to RM13.8 billion.

Consumer goods imports accounted for 8.6%, up 7.4% to RM9 billion, while semi-finished goods imports accounted for 55.6%, up 5.8% to RM58.7 billion.