Malaysia's exports in November rose at only half the pace anticipated, but economists said the country's trade picture remains satisfactory given the weak state of global demand. Government data showed that exports grew 6.3 percent year-on-year, compared to the median forecast in a Reuters poll for a 12.2 percent rise. Southeast Asia's third-largest economy has been hit by weak global prices for its commodity exports, and by a slowdown in China, which in November was the biggest buyer of Malaysian's exports. From a year earlier, November earnings from liquefied natural gas tumbled while those from electronics and electrical products, the biggest export, increased only marginally. "The export figures are a little bit disappointing, but considering what we've seen in the rest of the region, Malaysia's (export numbers) are still going up and that's going to continue going forward," said Euben Paracuelles, an economist with Nomura in Singapore. "Outside of commodities, a lot of Malaysia's manufactured exports are going to the U.S. and this should help to offset the effects from the slowdown in China." Malaysia only reports trade figures in ringgit, which slumped more than 18 percent against the U.S. dollar in 2015. November's trade surplus narrowed to 10.23 billion ringgit ($2.32 billion) from 12.2 billion ringgit the previous month. Despite weaker commodity prices, Malaysia's year-to-date trade surplus of 86.3 billion ringgit ($19.58 billion) is considerably larger than the 73.6 billion ringgit ($16.70 billion) from the same period last year. "This should provide some relief to the current account balance," Rahul Bajoria, economist at Barclays Bank, Singapore, said in a report. Wider Current Account Surplus? For the July-September quarter, Malaysia reported its smallest current account surplus in more than two years. ANZ said it expected the current account to "remain comfortably in surplus", increasing from 3.4 percent of gross domestic product to 4.5 percent in 2016. Imports in November rose 9.1 percent on higher demand for electronic products and consumer goods. The poll had forecast a 14.1 percent rise in imports, which slipped 0.4 percent in October. In October, exports rose 16.7 per cent, its highest growth since April 2014. For November, exports to the EU rose 5.9 percent from a year earlier, while those to the U.S. increased 9.2 percent on higher shipments of manufactured goods. In the third quarter, Malaysia grew 4.7 percent from a year earlier, quarter, its slowest economic growth in over two years.