Malaysia's total trade in September declined by 22.4 percent compared with the same month in 2008, the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) said here on Wednesday.
According to the statement issued by MATRADE, in September, Malaysia's total exports dropped by 24.2 percent while total imports were 20.2 percent lower on a year-on-year basis.
MATRADE said that total trade in September was valued at 85.21 billion ringgit (24.35 billion U.S. dollars) with total exports and total imports valued at 47.24 billion ringgit (13.5 billion U.S. dollars) and 37.97 billion ringgit (10.85 billion U.S. dollars) respectively.
A trade surplus of 9.27 billion ringgit (2.65 billion U.S. dollars) was recorded in September 2009, making it the 143rd consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997.
Total trade during the first nine months was valued at 702.78 billion ringgit (200.79 billion U.S. dollars), a drop of 23.2 percent from the corresponding period of 2008.
During the same period, total exports declined by 23 percent to394.34 billion ringgit (112.67 billion U.S. dollars) while total imports were lower by 23.5 percent to 308.44 billion ringgit (88.13 billion U.S. dollars).
On a month-on-month basis, Malaysia's total trade in September was 0.9 percent lower than August 2009 with total exports and total imports declined by 1.1 percent and 0.7 percent respectively. /.