Malaysia's trade surplus in August rose 64.9 percent to RM9.82 billion (US$2.6 billion) from the RM5.96 billion achieved in July, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said Tuesday.

The August trade surplus was also up 21.87 percent from August 2004. This marks the 94th consecutive month of trade surpluses since November 1997, it said in a statement.

Total exports in August rose 7 percent month-on-month to RM46.63 billion and were also up 12.5 percent from a year earlier, it said.

The year-on-year increase in exports was supported mainly by higher exports of electrical and electronic products, transport equipment, refined petroleum products, crude petroleum, palm oil and chemicals and chemical products.

Major export markets

Imports in August rose 10.3 percent year-on-year to RM36.81 billion but were down 2.2 percent month-on-month, it said, attributing the month-on-month decline to lower imports of intermediate and capital goods.

Member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the US, Japan, China, Hong Kong and the European Union were the country's major export markets, taking a combined 77.5 percent of Malaysia's total exports in August.

For the first eight months of the year, total exports stood at RM343.53 billion, while imports were at 279.88 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of RM63.65 billion.