Malaysia's February exports down 9.7%

Kuala Lumpur

MALAYSIA's exports fell 9.7 per cent in February from a year earlier, the biggest drop since September 2009, due to a slump in oil prices and a weakening Chinese economy that cut demand for commodity shipments.

Imports edged up and that trend is likely to continue, economists said, putting pressure on the current account and on the ringgit, one of the weakest currencies in Asia this year with a drop of nearly 5 per cent against the dollar. "The export figure confirms that Malaysia's growth momentum is starting to decelerate quite sharply, weighed down by China," said Chua Hak Bin, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.