Malaysia's trade surplus up 30pc in September

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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 (Xinhua): Malaysia's trade surplus surged 29.9 per cent to 11.45 billion ringgit (3.43 billion US dollars), compared with the previous month, the ministry of international trade and industry announced today.
It was the 119th consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997, the ministry said in a statement.
Total exports in September were 53.69 billion ringgit (16.07 billion US dollars) while imports were 42.24 billion ringgit (12. 65 billion US dollars), resulting in total trade of 95.53 billion ringgit (28.60 billion US dollars).
Exports rose 1.1 per cent while imports declined 1.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
Compared with the previous month, exports declined 0.3 per cent and imports fell 6.2 per cent.
Strong trade performance was recorded in the third quarter of 2007, the ministry said.
Exports grew 9 per cent from the second quarter to 158.06 billion ringgit (47.32 billion US dollars) and imports rose 6.1 per cent to 129.83 billion ringgit (38.87 billion US dollars).
In the first nine months of 2007, total trade was 810.47 billion ringgit (242.66 billion US dollars), an increase of 1.8 per cent on a year-on-year basis.