KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's total trade in services increased by 14.6 percent year-on-year to 497.4 billion ringgit (117.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, contributing 25.8 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), official data showed Wednesday.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that exports of services grew by 24.6 percent year-on-year to 242.9 billion ringgit.

Concurrently, imports rose 6.5 percent year-on-year to 254.5 billion ringgit.

As the growth in exports surpassed imports, the services trade deficit narrowed substantially from 44 billion ringgit in 2023 to 11.7 billion ringgit in 2024.

The statement said that Asia continued to be the main destination for Malaysia's services exports in 2024, accounting for 67.5 percent of the total.

Similarly, Asia was also the top source of services imports, accounting for 58.6 percent of the total.

Singapore, the United States and China were the three main destinations for Malaysia's services exports in 2024.

On the imports front, the main sources were from the United States, Singapore and China. (1 ringgit equals 0.24 U.S. dollar) ■