Malaysia’s current account surplus narrowed to MYR 10.83 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 from MYR 13.92 billion in the same period of the previous year. The goods surplus decreased to MYR 33.03 billion from MYR 34.06 billion a year ago. In addition, the deficit of both primary (MYR 12.93 billion from MYR 8.41 billion) and secondary income (4.93 billion from MYR 4.76 billion) widened. Meanwhile, the services account gap narrowed to MYR 4.34 billion from MYR 6.97 billion a year earlier. Considering 2018 as a whole, the current account surplus declined to MYR 35.77 billion from MYR 40.28 billion in 2017. Current Account in Malaysia averaged 15252.23 MYR Million from 1999 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 39982 MYR Million in the third quarter of 2008 and a record low of 978 MYR Million in the second quarter of 2013.
Current Account in Malaysia is expected to be 12700.00 MYR Million by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Current Account in Malaysia to stand at 11300.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Malaysia Current Account is projected to trend around 13200.00 MYR Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.