London, Friday, 12 August 2022
The second quarter of 2022 saw Malaysia's GDP grow by 8.9% yoy, a strong acceleration from the first quarter's 5.0% growth and handily exceeding the market consensus of a 6.7% increase.
Since Q2 of 2021, it was the strongest GDP growth, primarily due to domestic demand as the economy recovered from COVID limitations.
Both household consumption (18.3% vs 5.5% in Q1) and fixed investment (5.8% vs 0.2%) saw significant increases.
While this was happening, government spending significantly decreased (2.6% vs. 6.7%), and net international commerce suffered since exports rose by 10.4% while imports increased by 14%. On the production front, output increased for manufacturing (9.2% vs. 6.6%), services (12.0% vs. 6.5%), and construction (2.4% vs. -6.2%).
Meanwhile, both mining (-0.5% vs -1.1%) and agriculture (-2.4% vs 0.1%) saw a decline in activity. Following a downwardly revised 3.8% growth in Q1, the GDP increased 3.5% on a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis.
In H1 2022, the GDP expanded by 6.9% year over year.
(Source: Department of Statistics, Malaysia // Edited by: The Decision Maker – International Relations editors)