Malaysia's Q1 Balance Of Payments Records Lower Surplus Of RM8.7 Billion

KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's current account balance posted a lower surplus of RM8.7 billion for the first quarter (Q1) of 2013 compared with RM22.9 billion in the preceding quarter, the Statistics Department said.

Source from (Bernama): http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/bu/newsbusiness.php?id=949970
Published: May 16, 2013

In a statement, the department said this was mainly attributed to a lower surplus of RM24.7 billion in goods account and a higher net outflow of RM8.8 billion in primary income account.

Year-on-year (YoY), the surplus on the current account reduced to RM8.7 billion from RM16.9 billion in the same period last year due to lower surplus on goods account by RM11.3 billion from RM36 billion last year.

Under the goods account for Q1 2013, goods posted lower surplus of RM24.7 billion from RM34.3 billion last year due to lower value in exports free on board (f.o.b) and higher value in imports of f.o.b.

As for the service account, export of services registered RM29.8 billion from the RM31.6 billion in the preceding quarter, the department said.

In the current quarter, the primary income receipts (credit) recorded RM9.9 billion from RM12.2 billion in the fourth quarter (Q4) 2012, while income payments (debit) recorded RM18.7 billion from RM17.8 billion previously.

At the same time, receipts on secondary income saw a decrease amounting to RM1.5 billion from RM1.7 billion in Q4 2012.

The department said capital account reverted to net outflow of RM6 million from net inflow of RM372 million in Q4 2012 due to higher net payments on capital transfers by RM6 million.

In the quarter under review, the financial account recorded a turnaround to net inflow of RM1.0 billion from net outflow of RM10.3 billion posted in the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, direct investment posted a net outflow of RM2.2 billion from RM18.4 billion during the previous quarter, while YoY portfolio investment posted lower net inflow from RM25.1 billion to RM3.9 billion.

The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia as at end-March 2013 was RM431.2 billion, an increase of RM4.0 billion as compared to a quarter ago.

-- BERNAMA