Malaysia's trade surplus posted 6 billion ringgit (1.74 billion U.S. dollars) in value in April, down 9.1 percent compared with the same period of last year, the Department of Statistics said Friday.

The decrease was due to an increase in the country's imports for the month, which recorded 40.1 billion ringgit (11.79 billion U.S.dollars), more than 39.1 billion ringgit (11.50 billion U.S. dollars) registered for the same month of last year.

The country's export value for April this year stood at 46.1 billion ringgit (13.56 billion U.S. dollars), slightly more than 45.7 billion ringgit (13.44 billion U.S.dollars) in April 2006.

Electrical and electronic products, the country's largest export contributor group, accounted for 42.4 percent of the total exports in the month, worth of 19.6 billion ringgit (5.76 billion U.S.dollars) in value, but declined by 11.3 percent year-on-year.

In the first four months of this year, Malaysia's external trade balance registered a surplus of 27.1 billion ringgit (7.97 billion U.S.dollars) against 32.4 billion ringgit (9.53 billion U. S.dollars) in the same period last year, according to the department.

The exports for the four months reported 184.2 billion ringgit (54.18 billion U.S.dollars) in value, up 1.0 percent year-on-year, while the imports rose by 4.8 percent to 157.2 billion ringgit (42. 63 billion U.S.dollars).

Source: Xinhua