Xifres de comerç exterior de Malàisia

Foreign Trade in Figures

Malaysia is well known for its openness to international trade. Foreign trade represented 116.5% of the country’s GDP in 2021 (World Bank, 2022) making the country vulnerable to external demand. The country mainly exports electrical and electronic equipment (37% of total exports in 2021), Mineral fuels, oils, distillation products (11%), machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers (8.6%), animal, vegetable fats and oils, cleavage products (5.8%) and rubbers (4.8%). It mainly imports electrical and electronic equipment (30%), Mineral fuels, oils, distillation products (12%), machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers (9.4%) and plastics (4.1%) (Comtrade, 2021). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is forecasting a increase of more than 7.7% in the volume of exports of goods and services of the country in 2022, after an increase of 7% in 2021 and a fall of 11.1% in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, and an increase of more than 11.3% of its imports, after an increase of 5.4% in 2021 and a fall of 8.6% in 2020.

In 2021, Malaysia's main trade partners were China (17% of total exports in 2021), Singapore (15%), United States (12%), Hong Kong (7.2%) and Japan (6.5%). Its main suppliers were China (23% of total imports), Singapore (10%), United States (9.4%) and Japan with 8.3% (Comtrade, 2021). Even though exports of electronic equipment suffered from the Chinese slowdown, U.S. demand should stay dynamic and support exports. The government supported the creation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a multilateral free-trade agreement negotiated between Asia-Pacific and North American countries. The treaty, signed by Malaysia and eleven other nations in order to boost inter-regional trade, was renamed as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) after the withdrawal of the United States in January 2017. It was signed in March 2018 but Malaysian government has not set any deadline for ratifying. An increasing number of foreign companies are exploring Malaysia as a potential base for regional operations with the CPTPP member markets. On the 15th of November 2020 Malaysia has signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with 14 other Indo-Pacific countries. This free trade agreement is the largest trade deal in history, covering 30 per cent of the global economy. It includes the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN : Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and ASEAN’s free trade agreement partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and Republic of Korea). The RCEP covers goods, services, investment, economic and technical cooperation. It also creates new rules for electronic commerce, intellectual property, government procurement, competition, and small and medium sized enterprises.

According to WTO data, exports of goods amounted in 2020 to USD 238.2 billion and imports reached USD 205 billion. As with regard to services, Malaysia exported USD 40.8 billion worth of services and imported USD 43.2 billion. Malaysia's exports fell by 1.1% 2020 as the country recorded lower commodity sales to major importers such as Australia, Japan, China and Thailand. Meanwhile, Malaysian imports declined by 2.3% in the same period resulting in a trade surplus of USD 123.1 billion (WTO, 2021). This was the 22nd consecutive year of trade surplus since 1998. Malaysia's trade surplus widened to a new record high of MYR 26.2 billion (USD 6.22 billion) in October 2021 from MYR 22.1 billion (5.25 USD billion) in the same month a year ago amid a further recovery global demand and surging commodity prices. Exports surged 25.5 to a fresh record high of USD 114.4 billion, led by higher sales of mining (66.7%), agriculture sectors (28.9%), and manufactured goods (23.3%). Imports soared 27.9 percent to a new record high of USD 88.2 billion as purchases grew for all sectors: intermediate goods (35.5 percent), capital goods (15.1%) and consumption goods (10.8 percent) Considering the first ten months of the year, the trade surplus widened sharply to USD 202.5 billion from USD 145.3 billion a year earlier (Department of Statistics, Malaysia, and Trade Economics, 2021).