Trade surplus grows 29.9% in Sept to RM11.45 billion

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's trade surplus surged by 29.9 percent to RM11.45 billion in Sept from RM8.81 billion in August, marking the 119th consecutive month of trade surplus since Nov 1997, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) announced Monday.Total exports in Sept were RM53.69 billion while imports were RM42.24 billion resulting in total trade of RM95.93 billion, MITI said in its preliminary release of Malaysia's External Trade Statistics for Sept 2007.The higher exports were contributed by particularly by exports of Electrical and electronic (E&E) products, transport equipment, crude petroleum as well as optical and scientific equipments.The ministry said compared with Sept 2006, exports in Sept 2007 rose 1.1 percent while imports declined 1.5 percent.When compared with August 2007, exports declined marginally by 0.3 percent while imports in September were lower by 6.2 percent, it said.MITI said strong trade performance was recorded in the third quarter of 2007 with exports grew by nine percent to RM158.06 billion from the second quarter while imports rose 6.1 percent to RM129.83 billion, the highest quarterly growth in 2007.For the first nine months of this year, total trade was RM810.47 billion, an increase of 1.8 percent from the corresponding period of 2006.During the same period, the ministry said, exports grew by one percent to RM441.19 billion while imports expanded by 2.9 percent to RM369.27 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of RM71.92 billion.