KL's trade surplus down

KL's trade surplus down

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's trade surplus in June fell 30 percent from a year earlier due to a sharp slowdown in exports, official figures showed Wednesday.

June's 3.3 billion ringgit (US$868.42 million) surplus compared with 4.7 billion ringgit a year earlier, the Statistics Department said in a statement.

It was the country's 44th consecutive trade surplus since November 1997, the department said.

Exports in June dipped 13.5 percent from a year earlier to 27.5 billion ringgit, outpacing a 10.4 percent decline in imports to 24.2 billion ringgit.

In the six months to June, the trade surplus fell to 25.8 billion ringgit from 28.8 billion a year earlier as exports slid 3.8 percent to 169.1 billion ringgit and imports dropped 2.5 percent to 143.3 billion.

Almost 21 percent of all Malaysia's exports go to the United States, making it vulnerable to the economic slowdown there.

The government has revised downwards its growth forecast this year to between five and six percent, from seven percent previously, as the global slowdown begins to bite.