Malaysia's trade surplus expanded to 40.4 billion ringgit in May, according to data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia released Friday.
The surplus jumped from 28.8 billion ringgit in the previous month, beating the consensus estimate of 23.2 billion ringgit tracked by Investing.com.
Total exports surged 45.3% year over year to a record 184 billion ringgit, compared with a 16.4% increase in April. On a monthly basis, exports edged up 0.4%.
Imports rose 14.1% to 143.6 billion ringgit, following a 20% increase in April. Compared with the previous month, imports declined 6.8%.