Malaysia’s January exports unexpectedly fell for the first time in eight months on weak global demand and a fall in energy prices that look set to pressure the country’s finances this year, Reuters reported. Exports in January declined 2.8% from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, compared with 1.4% growth in December and a Reuters poll forecast of 2.5%. It was the first fall in exports since May 2015. Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy is a net exporter of liquefied natural gas and falling oil prices and a slowdown in China, its largest trading partner, has slowed export growth in the last two months. LNG exports in January dropped 48% from a year earlier, while crude oil shipments declined 38%. Imports in January rose 3.3% from a year earlier, picking up from 3.2% the previous month, but lower than economists’ forecast of 4.9%. January’s trade surplus narrowed to 5.39 billion ringgit ($1.30 billion) compared with 7.99 billion ringgit in December.
