KUALA LUMPUR (June 5): Malaysia's exports in April grew 14% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM84.24 billion, supported by higher external trade with Hong Kong, China, European Union (EU), Taiwan, Bangladesh and South Korea.

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, this is the second highest monthly export value after March's exports of RM84.5 billion.

"On a y-o-y basis, export growth was attributed to expansion in exports to Hong Kong (up RM3.4 billion), China (+RM2.2 billion), EU (+RM1.5 billion), Thailand (+RM1.2 billion) and Taiwan (+RM1.2 billion)," the department said in a statement today.

It said exports of manufactured goods went up 16.8% y-o-y or RM10.16 billion to RM70.54 billion, which is the highest since September 2017, and it accounted for 83.7% of Malaysia's total exports.

"The expansion was mainly on account of higher exports of electrical and electronic (E&E) products which increased by RM5.57 billion or 37.8% of total exports," the department said.

It added that re-exports in April 2018 was valued at RM20.1 billion (+84.3%) and accounted for 23.9% of total exports while domestic exports increased RM1.2 billion (+1.8%) to RM64.1 billion.

In a separate statement, the Malaysian External Trade Department Corp (Matrade) said other products that contributed to the increase in exports include manufactures of metal, transport equipment, petroleum products, chemicals and chemical products, and machinery, equipment and parts.

Exports of mining goods grew by 4.2% to RM6.76 billion, constituting 8% of Malaysia's total exports. The increase was mainly driven by higher exports of crude petroleum.

Agriculture goods export, which accounted for 7.1% of total exports, contracted by 4.8% to RM6.01 billion mainly due to lower exports of natural rubber.

Meanwhile, imports rose 9.1% y-o-y to RM71.17 billion from RM65.2 billion, mainly attributed to capital goods as intermediate goods and consumption goods decreased.

Trade surplus of RM13.07 billion was recorded for the 246th consecutive month since November 1997.

Matrade said total trade for the first four months of 2018 amounted to RM597.3 billion, up 4.9% compared to the corresponding period of 2017.

Exports increased by 7.8% to RM321.87 billion while imports climbed 1.6% to RM275.43 billion.

Trade surplus surged by 68.7% to RM46.44 billion from last year.