Standard Chartered Bank: Exports likely slowed in January

Quotes from Standard Chartered Bank

• The Department of Statistics will announce January trade data on 6 March. We expect export growth to have slowed to 0.8% y/y from 2.7% in December. Weaker commodity prices will affect Malaysia's export performance.
• Tapis crude oil prices fellby about 57% y/y in January. Liquefied natural gas prices have also declined, but weexpect the pass-through to export values to be delayed due to contracted prices.
  
  
• Conversely, the weak Malaysian ringgit (MYR) may support the value of exports inMYR terms. 
  
  
• We expect imports to have risen a modest 0.3% y/y, partly due to strong imports in December.
  
  
• We forecast a January trade balance of MYR 6.7bn.