Malaysia’s services sector to contribute more to economy

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s services sector is continuing to expand and the hope is that it will contribute even more to the economy.

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan said the Government was generally supportive of entrepreneurs who wanted to start businesses, particularly in the services sector, by providing various loan schemes.

He said this in response to the latest growth figures released by Bank Negara on Friday, which showed the services sector had contributed a strong, sustained 6% to the country’s second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figure of 6.4%.

Ahmad said Malaysia’s GDP growth for the quarter had beaten most countries in the Asean region, including Singapore at 2.1%, while surpassing that of South Korea (3.6%), the United States (2.4%), the United Kingdom (3.1%) and Russia (1.2%).

“Only China at 7.5% beat Malaysia’s GDP growth,” he said.Ahmad told reporters this after launching H Pro Motorsport Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Malaysia’s 6.4% second-quarter economic growth also beat forecasts of analysts and was a 0.2% improvement over the first quarter.

The construction sector was the main contributor to the GDP at 9.9%, followed by manufacturing (7.3%), agriculture (7.1%), private consumption (6.5%) and petroleum and mining (2.1%).

Ahmad said the strong growth was the result of good management of the economy in the midst of the uncertainty in the global environment, as well as Malaysia’s political stability.

“The growth was not just focused on the management of the country’s expenditure but also the macro and micro economy, imports and exports, fiscal and monetary policies, alongside domestic and foreign investments,” he added. — Bernama