Malaysia's exports in July were unchanged from a year earlier as a continued slow down in electronics exports offset a rise in palm oil and other oil shipments, the trade ministry said Tuesday.

Exports for the month were worth 50.52 billion ringgit (US$14.4 billion; euro10.5 billion), the same amount as in July 2006, the ministry said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, imports expanded 2.5 percent from a year ago to 42.54 billion ringgit (US$12 billion; euro8.8 billion). Nine economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected an average expansion of 0.4 percent in exports and of 0.6 percent in imports.

Malaysia's trade surplus for July narrowed to 8 billion ringgit (US$2.3 billion; euro1.7 billion), from 8.7 billion ringgit (US$2.5 billion; euro1.8 billion) in June. Electrical and electronics exports fell 8.8 percent to 21.9 billion ringgit (US$6.2 billion;euro4.5 billion) in July from the same month last year.  In June, the exports declined 11.1 percent from a year ago, the data showed.

Malaysia is a key manufacturing base for Intel Corp., Motorola Inc. and other global electronics companies, and electronics goods account for more than half of the country's total exports. Exports to the U.S., the top market for electronics goods, fell 20.6 percent in July compared to last year, the ministry said.

The poor performance in the electronics sector masked the strong growth in commodity trade.  Crude palm oil exports jumped 52 percent from a year ago to 3.3 billion ringgit (US$943 million; euro692 million).  Export of chemicals and chemical products rose 11 percent to 3.3 billion ringgit. Crude oil exports also increased 3.9 percent to 3.07 billion ringgit (US$877 million; euro643 million).

Malaysia's central bank has said the economy is expected to gather steam in the second half of the year to post annual growth of 6 percent.

The Star, September 4, 2007