BNM: Malaysia’s GDP grew by record high in two decades, no chance of recession in 2023

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) today announced that Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 8.7 per cent last year, and gave assurance that Malaysia’s economy will not be going into a recession this year.

In a press conference, BNM governor Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus pointed out that last year’s growth rate is the highest annual growth rate posted by the country in the past 22 years — after the 8.9 per cent growth rate recorded in 2000.

“We expect that growth in 2023 will continue to be forthcoming, though at a much more moderate pace because of slower external demand, but it will still be supported by domestic demand,” she said at Sasana Kijang here.

Other key reasons that BNM gave for its confidence in the economy this year are the continued improvement in the job market, positive effects from China reopening its economy, higher tourism activity and the implementation of new and existing investment projects.

It was also announced that the GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2022 (Q4 2022) moderated to 7.0 per cent — following the 14.2 per cent growth registered in Q3 2022 — due to waning support from stimulus measures and low base effects.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said that in 2022, the services sector recorded the highest growth (10.9 per cent), followed by manufacturing (8.1 per cent), construction (5.0 per cent), mining and quarrying (3.4 per cent), and then agriculture (0.1 per cent).

Inbound travel expenditure in 2022 increased to RM27.9 billion, from RM300 million in 2021 — although it was still lower than the RM82.1 billion spent in 2018 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Outbound travel expenditure also grew in 2022, to RM29.6 billion, more than half of the RM51.3 billion recorded pre-pandemic.

Meanwhile, net exports contracted by 1.8 per cent, albeit showing improvement compared to the 4.1 per contraction in 2021.

Headline inflation for the year stood at 3.3 per cent while core inflation was at three per cent.

Uzir added that 2022’s GDP amounted to RM1.8 trillion at current prices, and RM1.5 trillion at constant prices — leaving the gross national income per capita to surge to RM52,819 from the RM46,163 recorded the previous year.