(Bloomberg) -- The Malaysian economy is about to feel the full brunt of the coronavirus pandemic.
After posting its slowest growth since the global financial crisis, the economy is set to slip into a recession in the next four to six months, the country's top statistician said.
With its borders shut to foreigners and a standstill in commerce around the world, industries including tourism and aviation have been crippled, adding uncertainty to a rebound in trade in the first quarter, Mohd Uzir Mahidin, chief statistician of Malaysia, said in a report Friday.
The expected decline comes as the country's gross domestic product grew marginally at 0.7% in the first three months of the year, the lowest since the third quarter of 2009, he said. That's significantly less than the expansion of 3.9% to 4.2% expected as the country lost 22.8 billion ringgit ($5.3 billion) in economic output because of a countrywide lockdown, he said.
In March, as the world began the “Great Lockdown,” a leading indicator recorded its steepest drop since November 1991, the statistician said.
“From the early indications in April and May 2020, the economic environment is foreseen to be unfavorable for Malaysian businesses,” according to the report. With the global lockdown, “this unprecedented situation has caused a sharp contraction to the economy like never before.”
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
