UN General Assembly
1967

84. With your permission, Sir, I shall take the case of my country in point. Between the years 1960 and 1966, in a period of six years, the unit value of Malaysia's natural rubber export, our important export commodity, dropped by about 38 per cent from an average price of US 35 cents per pound to an average of US 21 cents per pound. Since then the price has declined further and recently reached the low level of US 15 cents per pound, the lowest in eighteen years. Although the volume of rubber export expected for 1967 is estimated to be about 26 per cent more than in 1960, it is sad to note that the estimated export earnings for this year will probably amount to only about two-thirds of the earnings received in 1960. Since the year 1960, Malaysia is suffering from loss of foreign exchange, as a result of the fall in the price of natural rubber, to the tune of $US 1,807 million, which represents more than 57 per cent of our estimated gross natural product for 1967.