(AFP) Malaysia's trade surplus in June fell 30 percent from a year earlier due to a sharp slowdown in exports, official figures showed today.

June's RM3.3 billion surplus compared with RM4.7 billion a year earlier, the Statistics Department said in a statement.

It was the country's 44th consecutive trade surplus since November 1997, the department said.

Exports in June dipped 13.5 percent from a year earlier to RM27.5 billion, outpacing a 10.4 percent decline in imports to RM24.2 billion.

Electrical and electronic products were the top export earner, accounting for RM15.7 billion or 57 percent of total export revenue for the month.

Imports of intermediate and capital goods - used mainly in producing goods for export and the local market - represented 88.5 percent of total imports and were down 10.2 percent, the department said.

Vulnerable to US slowdown

In the six months to June, the trade surplus fell to RM25.8 billion from RM28.8 billion a year earlier as exports slid 3.8 percent to RM169.1 billion and imports dropped 2.5 percent to RM143.3 billion.

Almost 21 percent of all Malaysia's exports go to the United States, making it vulnerable to the economic slowdown there.

The government has revised downwards its growth forecast this year to between five and six percent, from seven percent previously, as the global slowdown begins to bite.

The influential Malaysian Institute of Economic Research earlier this month slashed its growth forecast for Malaysia for the second time to 2.2 percent, citing gloomy prospects for electronics exports.

The private institute in April cut its forecast to four percent, down from five percent it predicted last December.