Malaysia’s exports of services surged 59.3 percent year on year to record 140.3 billion ringgit (30.16 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022, supported by travel, official data showed Thursday.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that the favorable growth of exports was spearheaded by the resilient performance of travel, which witnessed a significant recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall, Malaysia’s total trade in services increased by 39.4 percent year on year to 336.9 billion ringgit in 2022, contributing 18.8 percent to the country’s gross domestic product.
Meanwhile, imports of services rose from 153.7 billion ringgit to 196.7 billion ringgit in 2022.
As services exports grew faster than imports, the deficit of international trade in services narrowed to 56.4 billion ringgit in 2022 from 65.7 billion ringgit in 2021.
Asia remained the leading market for Malaysia’s services exports, constituting 55.1 percent of total services valued at 77.3 billion ringgit.
The major regions for Malaysia’s services imports were also Asia with a share of 52 percent or 102.3 billion ringgit.
Considering potential external risks such as geo-economics fragmentation, geopolitical tensions, and global inflation, the DOSM projected Malaysia’s trade in services to experience moderate growth throughout 2023. (1 ringgit equals 0.21 U.S. dollars)