KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's exports in February contracted 2 percent year-on-year to 70.34 billion ringgit (18.18 billion U.S. dollars) due to seasonal shorter working days, said the country's International Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) Thursday.

MITI said in a statement that the country's total trade for the month decreased by 2.4 percent year-on-year to 131.67 billion ringgit, as lower trade were registered with ASEAN, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia.

Malaysia's imports for the month fell 2.8 percent to 61.32 billion ringgit. It registered a trade surplus of 9.02 billion ringgit in February.

Exports of manufactured goods increased by 1.5 percent year-on-year to 58.34 billion ringgit in February, mainly because of higher exports of petroleum products.

Electrical and electronics (E&E) products, however, fell 0.1 percent year-on-year to 24.59 billion ringgit.

Exports of mining goods contracted by 10.2 percent to 6.14 billion ringgit, mainly due to lower exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as well as metalliferous ores and metal scrap.

Exports of agriculture goods also went down 23.3 percent to 5.2 billion ringgit due to lower exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.

Expansion in trade, however, were seen with major trading partners, namely China's Hong Kong, the European Union (EU), China, South Korea and China's Taiwan.

Malaysia's trade with its largest trading partner China expanded 7.1 percent year-on-year to 21.2 billion ringgit. Its exports to China, however, fell 9.7 percent to 8.64 billion ringgit due to lower exports of E&E products, metalliferous ores and metal scrap, LNG as well as natural rubber.

The country's imports from China rose 22.9 percent to 12.56 billion ringgit.

MIDF Research said in a note on Thursday that, Malaysia's February exports growth was way lower than market estimates of 8 percent, both exports and imports fell for the first time since November 2016 mainly due to shorter working days and high base effect amid Lunar festival.

However, it opined that Malaysia's external trade performance will rebound in upcoming months, leading to an overall easing path this year amid upbeat momentum in global trade activities.

Underpinned by optimistic signs of key global indicators and gradual recovery in commodities prices, the research house foresees Malaysia's exports to expand by 9.3 percent this year.

"The moderating pace is mainly due to unfavorable base effect and in tandem with the expectation of slight slowdown in overall business performance," it said.

MIDF also sees the protectionist threat as well as geopolitical tension could be a headwind to global market including Malaysia.