Economy expands at 4.4% in Q3, slower on-year

The worsening of China

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s economy expanded at 4.4% in the the third quarter ended Sept 30, which slower than the 6.2% a year ago. It was also below economists' expectation of 4.6% growth.

Bank Negara Malaysia data showed on Friday the services sector expanded by 7.2%, manufacturing by 5% and construction up by 4.6%. However, mining fell by 4.6% and agriculture contracted by 1.4%.

“Private sector activity continued to be the primary driver of growth, as private consumption expanded strongly following the zerorisation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Q3,” it said. 

On the supply side, the services and manufacturing sectors supported growth, while the mining sector continued to be affected by production shocks. 

The agriculture sector remained weak due to the protracted recovery from production constraints in the previous quarter. 

“On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted basis, the economy grew by 1.6%, faster than the 0.3% growth in the previous quarter,” it said.

 For the first three quarters of 2018, Malaysia’s GDP registered a growth of 4.7% with a value of RM907.2bil at constant prices and RM1,055.2bil at current prices.