COMMENT | PAS central’s economic, real estate and entrepreneur development committee posits that Malaysia’s 0.7 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth registered in the first quarter of this year is reflective of the country’s resilience amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Although it is a drastic reduction of pre-pandemic forecasts and is the lowest since 2009, it flies against several recent predictions that the Malaysian economy would actually shrink by up to 1.0 percent.

The relatively modest performance for the first quarter of 2020 is supported by the services and manufacturing sectors, which grew 3.1 percent and 1.5 percent respectively, with other sectors experiencing varying degrees of deficits.

The committee has analysed and simulated the latest figures to project the country’s economic performance for the year and anticipates Malaysia’s GDP in 2020 to come within the 2.5 percent to 3.0 percent range.

This forecast is supported by developments in several key sectors, which we anticipate will play a major role in the nation’s growth, namely services, manufacturing and construction.

Supported by the government's Prihatin Economic Stimulus Package...