The country's trade surplus in March rose 27.8 percent from a year ago to RM6.28 billion as exports hit a 28-month high, the trade ministry said today.

The result was also 27.5 percent higher than RM4.93 billion logged in February and marked the country's 65th consecutive trade surplus, the ministry said in preliminary figures released here.

Significant increases in all major products pushed March's exports up 23.7 percent from February to RM32.02 billion, the highest monthly value recorded since November 2000, it said.

Top export market

Exports of electrical and electronic products, which accounted for half of Malaysia's total exports, rose 21.5 percent from February while palm oil, another key revenue earner, surged 42 percent, the ministry said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) remained Malaysia's top export market, absorbing RM8.07 billion or 25.2 percent of total exports, up 17.2 percent from February, the ministry said.

This was followed by the United States which accounted for 17.2 percent of total exports, up nearly 40 percent from February due mainly to higher demand for electrical and electronic products.

The other markets were the European Union, Japan, Hong Kong, China and West Asia, all which recorded significant increases from February.

The ministry said imports in March rose 22.8 percent from a month earlier to RM25.74 billion, with Asean, Japan, US, China, Taiwan, Korea and Germany the largest source of imports.

Imports of electrical and electronic goods rose 21.4 percent from February to RM12.22 billion, representing 47.5 percent of total imports.

Imports of intermediate goods accounted for 72.6 percent, capital goods 13.5 percent and consumption goods 6.6 percent.

The important sectors

For the first quarter of the year, Malaysia recorded a trade surplus of RM17.49 billion, with exports of RM88.23 billion and imports of RM70.83 billion, the ministry said.

During the three months, exports were led by electrical and electronic products, accounting for 50.3 percent of total exports, followed by palm oil and chemical products.

Electrical and electronics goods also accounted for 47.4 percent of total imports, followed by machinery and chemicals products. -- AFP