Malaysian Economic Growth Fastest In A Year

Malaysia's economic expansion accelerated in the first quarter, driven by positive growth in all productive sectors, official data showed on Friday.

Gross domestic product registered an annual growth of 3.9 percent in the first quarter after rising 3.0 percent in the previous quarter, the Department of Statistics revealed.

Further, this was the strongest growth since the first quarter of 2023, when GDP expanded by 5.6 percent.

On a quarterly basis, GDP contracted 3.4 percent in the March quarter, faster than the 3.1 percent fall in the final quarter of 2023.

On the production side, the annual growth in the service sector improved to 4.4 percent from 4.2 percent. The positive performance was attributed to the wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, and business services sub-sectors.

The manufacturing sector rebounded 1.9 percent from last year, and that of mining and quarrying grew at an accelerated pace of 4.9 percent. Both the agriculture and construction sectors advanced by 1.3 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively.

Separate official data showed that Malaysia's trade surplus shrank to MYR 12.8 billion in March from MYR 26.7 billion in the corresponding month last year. In February, the surplus was MYR 11.2 billion.

The decline in trade surplus was attributed to a 0.8 percent annual fall in exports amid a 12.5 percent surge in imports.

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