Overview

Malaysia’s current account surplus narrowed to RM3.9 billion compared to RM15.0 billion in the previous quarter. The last lower surplus was recorded in Q2 2016 with a value of RM3.1 billion. The lower surplus was largely attributable to the lower net exports of goods as the imports strengthened by RM9.9 billion to record RM176.4 billion (Q1 2018: RM166.4 billion), while exports increased modestly from RM202.1 billion to RM202.4 billion in the current quarter. In addition, the larger deficit in primary income, due to higher dividend payments to foreign investments, also resulted to the lower surplus.

The financial account recorded a lower net inflow of RM9.2 billion from RM15.2 billion in first quarter of 2018. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) dropped from RM12.0 billion in the previous quarter to RM2.8 billion in Q2 2018. The FDI were mainly from Hong Kong, United Kingdom and United States of America. Meanwhile, Direct Investment Abroad (DIA) improved to RM3.6 billion from RM1.3 billion in Q1 2018, and the investments were mainly to Indonesia, Netherlands and India.

Portfolio investment registered a higher net outflow of RM38.3 billion from RM2.6 billion recorded in the previous quarter. This huge outflows was due to foreign net sell-off Malaysian debt securities of RM29.2 billion this quarter (Q1 2018: an inflow of RM0.9 billion). Meanwhile, other investment recorded a higher net inflow of RM48.4 billion from RM6.4 billion in last quarter.

The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia stood at RM423.3 billion compared to RM416.3 in the previous quarter.

Download: Summary Table of Balance of Payments, Q2 2018 

Released By:

DATO' SRI DR. MOHD UZIR MAHIDIN
CHIEF STATISTICIAN MALAYSIA
DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, MALAYSIA
 DrUzir_Mahidin    Dr_Uzir

17 August 2018

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Public Relation Officer
Strategic Communication and International Division
Department of Statistics, Malaysia
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