Malaysia's exports fall 25.5 pct in May amid COVID-19 pandemic

Malaysia's exports fell 25.5 percent year-on-year to 62.69 billion ringgit (about 14.63 billion U.S. dollars), the worst performance in 11 years, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to slow economic activities globally, official data showed Monday.

The International Trade and Industry Ministry said in a statement that trade in May slumped 27.8 percent year-on-year to 114.96 billion ringgit, as lower trade was recorded by regional countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Malaysia's imports also decreased by 30.4 percent to 52.27 billion ringgit. A trade surplus of 10.41 billion ringgit was made in the month.

Underpinned by growing demand of rubber gloves which benefited from the great demand during the pandemic, rubber products, especially rubber gloves exports registered a double-digit growth for two consecutive months, increasing 20.5 percent in May. This was despite the decline in exports of manufactured goods by 23.5 percent year-on-year.

Exports of agriculture goods decreased by 21.3 percent on lower exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products. Exports of mining goods slumped 49.1 percent due to lower exports of crude petroleum and liquefied natural gas.

For the first five months, Malaysia's trade declined by 8.7 percent to 688.57 billion ringgit as compared to the corresponding period of 2019.

Exports during the period decreased by 9.7 percent to 366.16 billion ringgit, imports contracted by 7.5 percent to 322.41 billion ringgit. Enditem