This was largely driven by changes to demand during the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of lockdowns, which reduced the output in many sectors that were unable to operate for stretches.

“The outbreak which has also plagued Malaysia’s major trading partners has affected demand for goods and services, which in turn squeezed the country’s export performance,” said Malaysia’s chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

Presenting the statistics department’s ‘State Socioeconomic Report, 2020’, Uzir pointed out that five states had increased the value of their exports during the pandemic-plagued year, despite total exports falling 1.4%.

Pahang’s 13.5% growth to RM28.8 billion led the way, followed by Penang (10%), Perak (6.9%), Melaka (1.7%) and Kelantan (1.7%).

He said that in Pahang, iron and steel ensured the state’s exports stayed resilient amid the crisis.

Meanwhile, growth in Penang and Melaka’s exports could be credited to their electronics sectors seeing strong and sustained demand, while rubber gloves buoyed the trade performance of Perak and Kelantan.

States that saw their exports take the biggest hits were Sarawak (-19%), Terengganu (-16.7%), Sabah (-14.8%) and Negeri Sembilan (-10.7%) while the federal territories were also badly affected with Labuan (-28.3%) and Kuala Lumpur (-9.8%) suffering drops in demand.

Most of these dips came as a result of steep declines in the trade of petroleum and palm oil products, which saw demand fall steeply around the world.

Negeri Sembilan’s decline however was the result of a sharp drop in demand for its electrical products and valves.

While promising in some areas, all states and federal territories saw their gross domestic product (GDP) fall last year, with Sabah (-9.5%), Kuala Lumpur (-7.5%), Sarawak (-7.1%), Perlis (-6.1%), Pahang (-5.9%), Melaka (-5.9%) and Terengganu (-5.7%) all faring worse than Malaysia’s overall GDP drop of 5.6%.