Illustrative image (Photo: themalaysianreserve) Hanoi (VNA) – Malaysia’s economy is expected to have contracted for the first time in more than a decade in the first quarter as COVID-19 crisis shattered private consumption and external demand.
According to the average forecast from a Reuters poll of 12 economists, Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined 1.5 percent in January-March from a year earlier, the first contraction since the third quarter of 2009 during the global financial crisis.
The Malaysian government plans to announce the GDP data on May 13.
In April, Malaysia’s central bank forecast that the economy will either shrink by up to 2 percent or grow marginally by 0.5% this year due to the pandemic./.
VNA
