Malaysia's exports in February declined more-than-expected from a year ago, figures from the Department of Statistics showed Friday.
Exports tumbled 9.7 percent year-on-year, while they were expected to fall just 1.4 percent. The annual decline in exports was attributed to lower shipments to China, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and the Republic of Korea.
Meanwhile, imports grew 0.4 percent annually, which was less than the 1.7 percent gain forecast by economists. Imports mainly came from China, the EU, Taiwan, Indonesia and Switzerland. The increase in imports was attributed to higher imports of intermediate goods, consumption goods and capital goods.
On a month-on-month basis, exports declined 16.4 percent and fell a seasonally adjusted 9.6 percent. Imports dropped 11 percent and decreased a seasonally adjusted 3.8 percent.
The trade surplus for February was MYR 4.5 billion, which was nearly half of the MYR 8.5 billion expected by economists. A year ago, the trade surplus was MYR 10.4 billion.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Economic News
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.