Malaysia’s external trade likely to remain modest in 2021

Image: Collected
Malaysia’s exterior trade for 2021 is likely to remain modest with exports projected to rebound by 2.7 %, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said.

Senior minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali stated the outlook for 2021 is likely to be better as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that global growth will rebound by 4.0 % and 5.5 %, respectively.

“For world merchandise trade volume, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) projected a 7.2 % growth in 2021.

“In tandem with improvement found in global progress and international trade, Malaysia’s gross domestic merchandise (GDP) is likely to rebound by 6.5 % to 7.5 %, higher than the forecast growth for ASEAN-5, which is 5.2 %,” he said found in a statement today.

Mohamed Azmin observed that Malaysia’s exports have been exhibiting signs of recovery since September 2020 with positive year-on-year growth.

Bigger demand for semiconductors and commodity-based products is anticipated to drive exports as global monetary activities recover. The trade surplus documented in 2020 marked the fourth consecutive year of double-digit development, with an expansion of 26.9 per cent to RM184.79 billion compared to 2019.

It was also the major trade surplus thus far, representing Malaysia’s achievement in sustaining trade surplus for 23 consecutive years since 1998.

Total trade in 2020 amounting to RM1.777 trillion, contracting by 3.6 % in comparison to 2019 while imports totalled RM796.19 billion, a decline of 6.3 %.

Malaysia’s exports in 2020, valued at RM980.99 billion, declined marginally by 1.4 % compared to the preceding year, in tandem with the unfavourable external environment as a result of result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exports rebounded found in the second 1 / 2 of 2020, increasing by 4.8 %, a substantial improvement from a 7.9 % contraction in the first half of 2020 as the economy progressively reopened and external demand gradually recovered.

 Lower exports were documented to Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Japan while bigger exports was authorized to China, the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

“Malaysia’s trade performance was in tandem with countries in your community, notably Indonesia, Singapore, Southern Korea and Thailand.

“While trade with existing Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) companions found in 2020 stood at RM1.185 trillion, registering a decrease of 3.7 per cent and accounting for 66.7 % of Malaysia’s total trade,” he said.

Mohamed Azmin explained the recent signing of the Regional In depth Economic Partnership (RCEP), the largest FTA on earth, provides Malaysian companies and businesses usage of greater than a third of the world’s market, attract overseas direct investment, and become a boon to Malaysia’s export growth.

“In the years ahead, investor confidence offers been bolstered simply by Moody’s most up-to-date affirmation of Malaysia’s community and foreign currency long-term issuer ratings by A3, with a well balanced outlook.

“This is a testament to the government’s strong fiscal discipline and robust medium-term growth prospects and demonstrates Moody’s confidence in Malaysia as having strong credit ranking,” he said.

 While these are challenging times, the government’s priority is definitely to place the country firmly on the path of economic recovery particularly with the 12th Malaysian Approach as the blueprint for sustainable expansion founded on sound economical fundamentals and decisive insurance plan measures.
Source: https://themalaysianreserve.com

Tags :

Share this news on:

Previous Story

Trending Topics

Archive