Malaysia's trade surplus in January grew 17.7 percent from December and was up 20.7 percent year-on-year at RM7.83 billion, the trade ministry said today.

"Malaysia's trade continued to be buoyant in January 2005, with exports expanding 11.3 percent from January 2004 to RM39.24 billion and imports growing 9.2 percent to RM31.41 billion," it said in a statement.

However, January's exports were down 10.2 percent from December while imports dropped 15.2 percent but this was in line with past trends, it said.

January marked the 87th consecutive monthly trade surplus since November

The ministry said the increase in exports was led by electrical and electronic products, crude petroleum, chemicals and chemical products, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude rubber.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the United States, the European Union, Japan, Hong Kong and China collectively accounted for 79.1 percent of Malaysia's total exports for January, it said.

In 2004, Malaysia's total trade jumped 22.84 percent to hit a record RM880.37 billion, with the trade surplus at RM81.07 billion.