“For trade, Malaysia saw a moderate decrease of 2.4% y-o-y to RM231.79 billion in the month under review,” it said in a statement.

However, Malaysia maintained its trade surplus in November 2023, valued at RM12.41 billion, making it the 43rd consecutive month of trade surplus since May 2020.

“Malaysia’s performance was in tandem with its key trading partners notably Taiwan, China, and Indonesia which posted negative trade growth in November 2023 and a drop in global imports,” it noted.

In addition, compared to October 2023, MITI said trade, exports, imports, and trade surplus fell by 3.1%, 3.2%, 3.1%, and 3.8%, respectively.

For the January to November 2023 period, trade declined by 7.5% to RM2.413 trillion compared to the same period last year; exports decreased by 7.8% to RM1.31 trillion, imports were lower by 7.1% to RM1.11 trillion, while trade surplus fell 11.3% to RM202.49 billion.

In November 2023, the ministry said exports of manufactured goods accounted for 83.8% or RM102.38 billion of total exports contracted by 6.7% y-o-y as lower shipments were recorded for electrical and electronics (E&E) products, chemicals, and chemical products as well as transport equipment.

“Despite the decrease, export expansion was recorded for petroleum products, machinery, equipment and parts, manufacturers of metal, processed food as well as iron and steel products,” it noted.

Exports of mining goods recorded the highest monthly value thus far this year, it said, expanding by 0.5% y-o-y to RM10.46 billion (8.6% share), and this was the first positive growth after five consecutive months of decline, driven by strong exports of crude petroleum as well as petroleum condensates and other petroleum oil.

MITI pointed out that exports of agriculture goods (6.9% share) declined by 5.5% to RM8.39 billion from November 2022 mainly due to lower exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products that were affected significantly by weaker export prices of palm oil.

On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, it said exports of mining goods recorded a double-digit increase of 19.7% while exports of manufactured and agriculture goods shrank by 4.8% and 5.7%, respectively.

For the January to November 2023 period, exports of manufactured goods slipped by 6.4% to RM1.12 trillion compared to the same period in 2022 owing to lower exports of petroleum products, E&E products, palm oil-based manufactured products as well as chemicals and chemical products.

Nonetheless, exports of processed food as well as paper and pulp products posted strong expansion.

“Exports of mining goods fell by 11.6% to RM95.38 billion due to lesser shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude petroleum.

“Exports of agriculture goods dropped by 21.6% to RM86.12 billion on lower exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products due to the decrease in export prices of palm oil,” it said.