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Malaysia Jan trade deficit due to high imports in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Higher growth in imports versus exports led to Malaysia recording a 1.1 billion ringgit trade deficit in January 1996 after registering a surplus of 655.3 million ringgit in the month before.

Imports in January rose by 27.9 percent to 17.26 billion ringgit from 13.5 billion in the same month of 1995, the Statistics Department said in its External Trade Summary for January, 1996, released on Saturday.

In contrast, exports grew by 17.7 percent to 16.12 billion ringgit from 13.7 billion in January, 1995.

The January deficit was also in contrast to the surplus of 152.5 million ringgit recorded in January 1995, it said.

Early this month, Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is also the finance minister, said the trade deficit was due to increased imports of cars and food ahead of the Id al-Fitr and Chinese New Year celebrations in February.

The department said machinery and transport equipment, which amounted to 10.4 billion ringgit or 60 percent of the total expenditure, remained the largest contributor to this increase.

Malaysia's imports came mainly from Japan (4.0 billion ringgit), United States (3.1 billion ringgit), Singapore (2.2 billion ringgit) and South Korea (889 million ringgit).

Exports were led by thermionic valves and tubes, photocells and parts with receipts amounting to 3.2 billion ringgit or 19.9 percent of total export earnings.

This was up 50.4 percent year on year, the report said.-Reuter