Business & Economy

Malaysia emerges from recession with 16.1% GDP growth

Bangkok, Aug 13 (EFE).- Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 16.1 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of the year after declining for four consecutive quarters, the Department of Statistics said on Friday.

“Economic performance was supported mainly by the improvement in domestic demand and continued robust exports performance,” the country’s central bank said in a statement.

The strong growth also reflected the low base in the same quarter of 2020 on account of a significant decline in activity caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the country’s central bank warned that the economic recovery could slow down due to the restrictions imposed amid a Covid-19 outbreak, linked to the highly infectious Delta variant.

On the supply side, the year-on-year expansion of the GDP in the second quarter of 2021 was supported by continued growth in the manufacturing sector, which expanded by 26.6 percent, as well as the services sector, which grew by 13.4 percent, according to the data of the statistics department.

However, on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, Malaysia’s GDP contracted 2 percent from 2.7 percent in the preceding quarter while the level of economic value in this quarter remained lower than the pre-pandemic level of the fourth quarter of 2019.

Despite the tightening of restrictions on movement in recent weeks due to the spread of the Delta variant, Malaysia expects a growth of between 3-4 percent in 2021, in contrast to the contraction of 5.6 percent recorded last year. EFE

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