(AFP) - The country's trade surplus fell 35 percent in November from a year earlier, dragged down by the decline in exports amid the global economic slowdown, government statistics showed today.

The country logged a surplus of RM3.9 billion in November, marking the 49th consecutive monthly trade surplus since November 1997, the Statistics Department said in a statement.

But the figure was down RM2.1 billion from RM6 billion recorded a year earlier.

The department attributed the lower surplus to a 13.4 percent fall in exports to RM28.4 billion outweighing an 8.6 percent dip in imports to RM24.5 billion.

Electrical and electronics products remained the top revenue earner, accounting for 59.2 percent of total exports. Imports of intermediate and capital goods - mostly used in manufacturing exports and accounting for 86.9 percent of total imports - were down 10.1 percent.

For the 11 months to November, the trade surplus fell to RM49.2 billion from RM56.1 billion in the same period in 2000.

Exports over the 11 months fell 10.1 percent to RM308.3 billion while imports shrank 9.7 percent to RM259.1 billion.

Growth predicted

Almost 21 percent of Malaysia's exports go to the United States and economists have predicted that trade will decline further due to the effects of the US recession.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also finance minister, Tuesday predicted the economy would grow three percent this year, down from an earlier official forecast of a four to five percent expansion.

The premier said the economy was likely to have grown 0.5-1.0 percent in 2001, down from an earlier government projection of one to two percent.