MEDIA STATEMENT

MALAYSIA EXTERNAL TRADE STATISTICS

Year 2020 has been challenging to global trade as a result of the stringent lockdown measures imposed across the board due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This directly caused major disruptions to global supply chains, especially movement of goods and services, and severely affected manufacturing activities.

Despite this unprecedented scenario, Malaysia’s external trade performed fairly well with exports rebounding in the second half of 2020 as compared to the negative growth recorded in the first half of the year. This could be attributed to the progressive opening of the economy and gradual recovery of external demand. In fact, exports in December was the highest monthly value recorded for 2020.

Exports to China recorded a new high in 2020 and similar momentum was reported for the United States which posted the largest value in the last decade. There was significant export growth to the emerging markets notably Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Rubber products, electrical and electronics (E&E) products, as well as palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products registered strong export expansion.

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Trade Performance : December 2020 and January - December 2020