KUALA LUMPUR (June 17): Malaysia’s trade performance in May 2022 remained resilient, recording the fastest growth since November 2021.

In a statement on Friday (June 17), Minister of International Trade and Industry and Senior Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said trade rose by 33.6% to RM228.37 billion compared to May 2021, the 16th straight month of double-digit growth.

He said exports increased by 30.5% to RM120.49 billion, the tenth consecutive month of double-digit expansion.

Mohamed Azmin said 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.

He said total trade surpassed RM1 trillion in just five months, the shortest period to breach this milestone.

Mohamed Azmin said 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.

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 leapt by 27% to RM491.85 billion.

Trade surplus edged up by 9% to RM101.12 billion.

In May 2022, trade with ASEAN took up 29.3% of Malaysia’s total trade, growing by 54.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM66.99 billion.

Exports expanded by 44.2% to RM37 billion as a result of higher exports of E&E and petroleum products.

Imports from ASEAN surged by 69.7% to RM29.99 billion.

Mohamed Azmin said exports to major markets in ASEAN that recorded increases were Singapore which grew by RM5.33 billion due to higher exports of E&E products, Thailand (up RM1.54 billion, LNG), Indonesia (up RM1.8 billion, petroleum products), Vietnam (up RM821.8 million, E&E products) and the Philippines (up RM1.06 billion, palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products).

Compared to April 2022, trade, exports and imports increased by 10.7%, 6.2% and 16.8%, respectively.

Trade with China during the first five months of 2022 expanded by 16.2% to RM187.8 billion compared to the same period of 2021.

Exports grew by 16% to RM82.7 billion bolstered by higher exports of E&E products, LNG as well as palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.

Imports from China climbed by 16.4% to RM105.1 billion.

Trade with the US in May 2022, which contributed 8.8% to Malaysia’s total trade, grew by 22% y-o-y to RM20.06 billion.

Exports were up by 15.5% to RM12 billion underpinned by strong exports of E&E products.

Imports from the US rose by 33.1% to RM8.06 billion.

On a m-o-m basis, imports rose by 3.7% while trade and exports decreased by 9.3% and 16.3%, respectively.