Malaysia exports to PH up 27% to $1.2B as of April

Malaysian exports to the Philippines grew by 27 percent to $1.2 billion in the first four months of the year, from the $954 million recorded a year ago.

Citing data from the Malaysia Trade Statistics System, the Trade Office of the Malaysian Embassy in Manila (Matrade Manila) said that among the top exports to the Philippines were electrical and electronic products; refined petroleum products; chemicals and chemical products; refined petroleum products; chemicals and chemical products; and palm oil.

For April alone, Malaysian merchandise exports to the Philippines almost doubled, reflecting the local economy’s continued growth.

Malaysia’s total trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, meanwhile, increased by 5.8 percent during the period to RM128.53 billion.

Of this amount, RM70.48 billion comprised of Malaysia’s exports to the region, while the remaining RM58.05 billion  represented its imports from the Asean in the first four months of the year.

According to Matrade, exports of manufactured goods to Asean were up 6.4 percent on the back of increased exports in electrical and electronics products; chemicals and chemical products as well as optical and scientific equipment.

“We have achieved significant expansion in trade with several trading partners, while also sustaining the growth trajectory for exports over the past 10 months since July,” Minister of International Trade and Industry Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed said in a statement.

Mohamed earlier expressed optimism that trade between the Malaysia and the Philippines would increase this year, given the two countries’ “sizes” and “income levels.”

“We expect a recovery in trade between Malaysia and the Philippines. There’s a lot of underutilized potential. The Philippines is a growing economy, a huge population, with a growing middle class,” Mohamed had said in May when he was in the Philippines for the World Economic Forum.

Total bilateral trade between Malaysia and the Philippines stood at $4.47 billion as of end-2013, a decline of close to 10 percent from the previous year.