Malaysia's exports down 5.8%

Blame it on weak electronics and commodity segments.

According to Nomura, Malaysia's exports surprised on the downside contracting 5.8% y-o-y in December from a downwardly revised 2.3% in November (Consensus: 1.4%; Nomura:3.9%). The weakness was broad based as electronics and commodity exports remained weak.

Here's more:

Electronic exports contracted by 12.4% from +1.1% in November, while key commodities such as palm oil (-15.8% from -12.5% in November) and LNG (-12.5% from -7.7%) weakened because of unfavourable terms of trade.

By destination, exports to all key trading partners slowed, notably to the US (-7.3% from 9.4%), China (-1.5% from 3.7%) and Japan (-11.4% from -16.5%) plunged. 

More surprising however was the contraction in imports, the first since the 2008-09 crises. Imports declined 6.5% y-o-y in December from +4.3% in November. This was led by intermediate goods imports, which fell by 15.9% y-o-y in December from -7.2% in November.

Growth in capital and consumer goods imports also eased to 5.3% y-o-y and 1.5% y-o-y in December from 23% and 2.8%, respectively. As a result, the trade surplus narrowed to MYR8.2bn from MYR8.7bn in November.