A study on performance of Balance of Trade (BOT) of Malaysia / Fadilah Hanim Zainal Abidin

This project paper presents a performance of Malaysia’s Balance of Trade (BOT) as well as the external trade for the past 15 years (1979-1993). It encompasses the performance of exports, im­ ports, major trading partners and direction of trade. The study shows that Malaysia performed well in external trade. For the same 15 years period, manufacturing sector has grown rapidly as a result of increased imports from trading part­ ners especially Japan. In the second part of the study, various factors affecting Balance of Trade (Malaysia) were examined by using regression analysis. It was found that income, money supply, inflation, GDP and previous year’s Balanc'e of Trade (BOT) were not significant in explaining the Balance of Trade (BOT). It means that there are other factors might influence the Balance of Trade (BOT) such as foreign exchange risk.