Malaysia posted total trade at 1.466 trillion RM (nearly 352 billion USD) in 2015 (Photo: thestar.com.my)Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia posted total trade at 1.466 trillion RM (nearly 352 billion USD) in 2015, up 1.2 percent from the previous year, according to the country’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
The figure included 779.95 billion RM of exports, rising 1.9 percent year on year.
It resulted in a trade surplus of 94.29 billion RM last year, an increase of 14.3 percent compared to 82.48 billion RM in 2014.
MITI Minister Ong Ka Chuan said it marked the 18 th straight year the country had recorded a trade surplus.
He added that the growth in exports was spearheaded by manufactured goods, which increased to 80.2 percent of total overseas shipments, from 76.7 percent in 2014.
In terms of market destinations, the ASEAN region remains Malaysia’s leading trading partner, accounting for 27.4 percent of the country’s total exports. Shipments to other ASEAN countries expanded by 2.8 percent year on year to 219.29 billion RM in 2015.
Other big export destinations included China, the EU, Japan and the US.
Meanwhile, electrical and electronic products made up 35.6 percent of last year’s export turnover, followed by machinery and spare parts (20.5 percent), and chemical products (7.2 percent).-VNA
