October 2, 2002	Wednesday	Rajab 24, 1423

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1: Malaysian exports, fuelled by strong growth in oil products and sustained demand for electronic goods, surged to their highest level in 22 months, the government said on Tuesday.

The performance pushed the trade surplus to 4.6bn ringgit in August from 4.05bn ringgit in July, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said.

Exports grew 13.8pc year-on-year to 31.5bn ringgit, posting double-digit growth for the second straight month, it said.

But the data showed exports slowing on a month-on-month basis, growing just 1.6 per cent in August following a 6.7 per cent expansion in July.

“It’s not that impressive. Exports have slowed down slightly,” said Manokaran Mottain, economist at SBB Securities.

“The impact (from the US) will be there, but thank goodness, there are sources of demand from intra-Asian trade,” Mottain said.—Reuters