PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) growth is in tandem with other Asean countries which also showed moderate growth, said the statistics department.
It highlighted that Singapore grew 1.1% in 2023 from 3.8% in 2022, Indonesia expanded by 5.1% from 5.3% while the Philippines recorded a 5.6% growth compared with 7.6%previously.
“Other developed countries also recorded modest growth such as South Korea at 1.4% (2022: 2.6%) and the UK at 0.1% (2022: 4.3%).
“However, China expanded further at 5.2% from 3% in 2022 while the US increased 2.5% from 1.9% in 2022,” it said in a statement.
Malaysia’s overall economic growth in 2023 grew 3.7% versus 8.7% in 2022 driven by the services sector with a growth of 5.3%, followed by the construction (6.1%) and manufacturing (0.7%) sectors.
The manufacturing sector grew at a slower pace following a higher base in the preceding year and weaker global external demand.
On the demand side of the economy, the growth was led by private final consumption or household expenditure increased by 4.7%, followed by gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) at 5.5% and government final consumption expenditure by 3.9%.
“Private final consumption or household expenditure, which contributed 58.9% to GDP, grew 4.2% in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023, backed by higher expenditure in transport (10.1%), food and non-alcoholic beverages (5.9%) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (5.6%).
“On quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted, the overall performance posted a decrease of 3% (Q3 2023: -0.7%),” chief statistician Uzir Mahidin commented.
He said GFCF grew by 6.4% in the quarter, while government final consumption expenditure grew by 7.3% led by higher spending on supplies and services.
On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, the government’s final consumption expenditure increased by 0.6%.
He also said that exports and imports declined by 6.3% and 2.9% respectively in Q4.
Thus, net exports continued to decline by 35.6% as compared to a decrease of 22.7% in the preceding quarter.
On a yearly basis, both exports and imports declined by 7.9% and 7.6%, respectively, with net exports recording a decrease of 11.3% in 2023.
