Malaysia records almost US$352 bln in trade last year
Malaysia posted total trade at 1.466 trillion RM (nearly US$352 billion) in 2015, up 1.2% from the previous year, according to the country’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
The figure included 779.95 billion RM of exports, rising 1.9% year on year.
It resulted in a trade surplus of 94.29 billion RM last year, an increase of 14.3% compared to 82.48 billion RM in 2014.
MITI Minister Ong Ka Chuan said it marked the 18 th straight year the country had recorded a trade surplus.
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| Malaysia posted total trade at 1.466 trillion RM (nearly US$352 billion) in 2015 (Photo: thestar.com.my) |
He added that the growth in exports was spearheaded by manufactured goods, which increased to 80.2% of total overseas shipments, from 76.7% in 2014.
In terms of market destinations, the ASEAN region remains Malaysia’s leading trading partner, accounting for 27.4% of the country’s total exports. Shipments to other ASEAN countries expanded by 2.8% year on year to 219.29 billion RM in 2015.
Other big export destinations included China, the EU, Japan and the US.
Meanwhile, electrical and electronic products made up 35.6% of last year’s export turnover, followed by machinery and spare parts (20.5%), and chemical products (7.2%).
