Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement that Malaysia is blessed with natural resources and commodities such as petroleum products and palm oil.
As a net commodity exporter, Malaysia also benefits from higher commodity prices resulting in the country’s total trade chalking up a double-digit annual growth of 21.3% to 231.4 billion RM, he said.
Exports rose 20.7% to 27.5 billion RM while imports went up 22% to 103.9 billion RM. The trade balance rose 15.7% and continued to remain in surplus at 23.5 billion RM.
Malaysia's trade performance in May 2022 remained resilient, recording the fastest growth since November 2021, with total trade surpassing 1 trillion RM, he said.
Malaysia is expected to maintain a better economic recovery in the upcoming months, Mohd Uzir noted.
The S&P Global Ratings recently revised Malaysia’s long-term sovereign credit ratings outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’ as it believes Malaysia is on a strong economic recovery path compared to other countries at similar income levels./.