What factors affect the export competitiveness? Malaysian evidence

Export competitiveness is an important issue for any country. This paper aims to discern the factors that affect the export competitiveness of a country. Malaysia is taken as a case study. Theoretically, exports are expected to be affected, among others, by factors such as, inflation rate, interest rate, exchange rate and money supply. The standard time series techniques are employed for the analysis. The empirical findings tend to indicate that the most important factor that affects the export competitiveness is the inflation rate followed by interest rate, exchange rate and money supply. This is an important finding for the policy makers to bear in mind in order to remain export-competitive at least in the context of Malaysia