Malaysia's trade grows 6.8% in 2008

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia recorded a positive growth of 6.8 percent in trade last year as its exports expanded by 9.6 percent compared with the previous year.
Malaysia's total trade grew to 1.19 trillion ringgit (340.0 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, with a surplus valued at 142 billion ringgit (40.6 billion U.S. dollars), Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said here on Thursday.
Malaysia's export expanded to 663.5 billion ringgit (189.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, led by commodities and resource-based manufactures, said Mustapa when unveiling Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Report 2008 at his office here.
He said that the exports grew by 7.8 percent in the first half of 2008, supported by non-electrical and electronic manufactures, including products of processed food, rubber, chemicals and petroleum.
However, the exports recorded a negative growth of 0.2 percent in the second half of 2008 due to slumping global demand and declining commodity prices, the minister said.
Mustapa said that manufactures continued to dominate Malaysia's exports with a 70 percent share of the total, followed by mining (18.2 percent) and agriculture (10.8 percent) exports.
For the services trade, the total trade value was 201.8 billion ringgit (57.7 billion U.S. dollars) and the surplus was 2.25 billion ringgit (642.9 million U.S. dollars) last year, he said.
"Exports (of the services) grew slightly to 102.0 billion ringgit (29.1 billion U.S. dollars), while imports shifted marginally upwards to 99.7 billion ringgit (28.5 billion U.S. dollars)," he said.
The minister also said that Malaysia's imports in 2008 recorded at 521.5 billion ringgit (149.0 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, an increase of 3.3 percent compared with 2007.
"Intermediate goods and capital goods accounted for 72.7 percent and 13.4 percent share of total imports, respectively," he explained.
According to the ministry, Malaysia's top five trading partners in 2008 were Singapore, the United States, Japan, China and Thailand.
"These countries contributed 52.5 percent to Malaysia's total trade last year," he added