KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 28): Malaysia's export prices rose by 2% to 149.3 points in November, up from 146.4 points in the previous month, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). 

Conversely, import prices fell by 0.8% from 131.3 points down to 130.2 points. 

Concurrently, the country's terms of trade experienced a month-on-month increase of 2.9%, reaching 114.7 points in November 2023, as reported in External Trade Indices.

Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin, Chief Statistician Malaysia, said the nation's export unit in November was propelled by the growth in indexes for mineral fuels (+11%), inedible crude materials (+1.1%), and food (+0.5%). 

However, the export volume index fell by 5.1%, due to declines in the indices for machinery & transport equipment (-7.4%), mineral fuels (-5.1%), and miscellaneous manufactured articles (-5%). 

Despite this drop, the seasonally adjusted export volume index saw a marginal 0.05% rise, maintaining 155.8 points. Compared to the previous year, the unit value index increased by 0.4% while the volume index decreased by 6.2%.

In contrast, the import unit value index dropped by 0.8% in November 2023 owing to decreases in the indexes of mineral fuels (-2.9%), machinery & transport equipment (-0.9%), and chemicals (-0.2%).

Similarly, the import volume index declined by 2.3% due to contractions in the indexes for mineral fuels (-15.2%), inedible crude materials (-7.2%), and food (-3.2%).

Consequently, the seasonally adjusted import volume index also fell by 3.8% from 197 points to 189.4 points. Year-on-year, the import unit value index decreased by 2.2% while the volume index saw a rise of 4.2%.

Additionally, Malaysia’s terms of trade for November 2023 experienced a month-on-month expansion of 2.9% to reach 114.7 points. 

This growth is attributed to the increased index of mineral fuels (+14.3%), animal & vegetable oils & fats (+1.7%) and inedible crude materials (+1.2%). Comparatively, the terms of trade index also witnessed a year-on-year growth of 2.7% from 111.6 points in November the previous year.