Malaysia's trade surplus fell 17.4 percent in November to RM8.69 billion ringgit from a revised surplus of RM10.52 billion in October, the government said today.

The November figure was up 45.3 percent from a year earlier, marking the 97th consecutive monthly surplus since November 1997, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) said in a statement.

Exports in November fell 12.5 percent month-on-month to RM43.48 billion but were up 11.19 percent from a year earlier, it said.

Public holidays

Miti attributed the lower exports in November to the reduced number of working days due to festivals and public holidays in the month, particularly Deepavali and Hari Raya Adilfitri.

Asean (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), the United States, the European Union, Japan, China and Hong Kong were the country's major export markets, taking a combined 79.98 percent of Malaysia's total exports in November.

Miti said that for the first 11 months of 2005, total exports stood at RM484.37 billion, with imports at RM393.98 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of RM90.40 billion.