Malaysian trade surplus down 25pc in April
Afp, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia's trade surplus in April fell 25 percent to 7.21 billion ringgit (1.98 billion dollars), a sharp decline from 9.58 billion ringgit in March, due to lower demand for electronic goods and crude oil, the government said Friday. The April figure was also 15 percent lower from a year earlier. But it still marked the 102nd consecutive monthly surplus since November 1997, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said in a statement. Exports in April rose 6.3 percent year-on-year to a 46.3 billion ringgit, but were down 9.7 percent from the preceding month, it said. Based on past trends, Malaysia's exports in March are generally higher than April, it added. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United States, the European Union, China, Japan and Hong Kong were the country's major export markets, taking 79.8 percent of Malaysia's total exports in April. MITI said that for the first four months of 2006, total exports grew by 10.2 percent to 183.01 billion ringgit, with imports expanding 13.1 percent to 150.01 billion ringgit, resulting in a trade surplus of 33 billion ringgit.
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