KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s economic outlook is looking positive for the near future, based on stipulations from economic indicators over the first three months in 2022.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said that high mobility is anticipated following Malaysia’s reopening of international borders on April 1, 2022.
Additionally, chief statistician, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin highlighted that the recent special withdrawals from the country’s Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is likely to boost the economy through increasing demand for products and services.
In a recent statement, he said that inflation expectations are high due to the current happenings in the global scene that is foreseen to higher commodity prices.
Despite that, he added that Malaysia’s economic trade overall had maintained a strong performance in February 2022 as it grew 17.5% to RM184.8 billion compared to the recorded RM157.3 billion in February 2021.
The year-on-year increase for both exports and imports by 16.8% and 18.4% amounts to a total of RM102.3 billion and RM82.5 billion respectively. These also resulted in a 10.7% increase of trade surplus.
Furthermore, the country’s overall trade kept its double-digit momentum in March 2022 with an expansion of 27.3%. Exports grew by 25.4% and imports rose 29.9% while trade balance stayed in excess, increasing by 10.3%.
Mohd Uzir further noted that for sectoral performances, the Industrial Production Index (IPI) gained 3.9% overall in February 2022 after the increase in the Manufacturing Index by 5.2% and the Electricity Index by 3.9%.
Meanwhile, the nation’s manufacturing sales value recorded a growth 11.2% to RM131.6 billion in February 2022, compared to the same time in 2021.
Speaking on Malaysia’s labour status, he explained labour situation improved substantially due to the constant economic and social activities which resulted in business recovery and the revival of the domestic tourism industry.
He said that February 2022 saw an increase in figures for employment as the numbers recorded a 3.0% growth to 15.73 million people in employment. This marks an increase of 1.1 percentage points for the employment-to-population ratio to 66.3% as compared to the 65.2% in February 2021.
He added that unemployment rate improved to 4.1% compared to the previous month.
– BERNAMA
Join our Telegram group for the latest updates!
Read more: 2.2% CPI increase in March 2022 caused by food inflation – DOSM
Discussion about this post