Malaysian exports contract

Malaysian exports contract

A vendor drives his makeshift stall on a motorcycle in downtown Kuala Lumpur. (AFP photo)
A vendor drives his makeshift stall on a motorcycle in downtown Kuala Lumpur. (AFP photo)

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia's exports contracted by 0.6% on an annual basis in January due to a decline in demand for petroleum and palm-oil based products, the government said Friday.

Exports receipts for January totaled 63.60 billion ringgit (565 billion baht), down from 63.97 billion ringgit a year ago, according to the Department of Statistics.

The agency said that refined petroleum products, which accounted for 5.4% of total exports, fell by 41.8% to 3.4 billion ringgit due to a drop in both value and export volume.

Exports of palm oil and palm-based products, which account for 7.2% of total exports, also decreased by 15.3% to 4.6 billion ringgit.

Export to China, one of the country's largest trading market, dropped by 22.7%.

January imports also slipped year-on-year to 54.6 billion ringgit from 57.6 billion, mainly due to a drop in the purchase of intermediate goods such as fuel and lubricants, which constituted 60.6% of the country's imports.

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