KL trade surplus falls 11%

KL trade surplus falls 11%

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia logged a trade surplus of 5.4 billion ringgit (US$1.4 billion) in June, marking an 11 percent fall from a year earlier, the statistics department said Monday.

The surplus, the 20th consecutive monthly rise, was also lower compared to the 6.5 billion ringgit recorded the previous month, it said.

"The reduced surplus was due to a higher growth rate in imports of 20.1 percent vis-a-vis exports which rose by 12 percent," the department said in a statement.

June's higher imports, driven mainly by an increase in intermediate and capital goods, amounted to 20.9 billion ringgit while exports were valued at 26.3 billion ringgit.

This brought the trade surplus for the first half of the year to 33.7 billion ringgit, up 50.6 percent compared to 22.4 billion in the same period last year, the department said.

Exports during the six months rose 7.1 percent year-on-year to 147.1 billion ringgit, but imports eased 1.5 percent to 113.4 billion ringgit, it added.