KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) today revised upwards its projection for Malaysia’s economic growth this year to 5.6 per cent, a 0.2 percentile point difference from its earlier forecast.
In its 2018-2019 Malaysian Economic Outlook, MIER reported that the second revision was driven primarily by domestic demand and reinforced by stronger external demand.
“Domestic demand is expected to grow by 5 per cent (a 0.2 percentage point upward revision from our previous forecast). Private consumption is expected to grow faster at 6.2 per cent (a 0.1 percentage point upward revision).
“The growth projection for public consumption is also revised upwards by 0.5 percentage points or 1.5 per cent,” it said in the outlook.
The outlook’s executive summary also said that gross fixed capital formation was also revised upwards by 0.2 percentage points, to grow by 4.1 per cent.
Better than expected global demand has also caused Malaysia’s import and export sector projection to be revised upwards to 13.6 per cent and 13.4 per cent respectively.
Growth projection for 2018 is maintained at a range of 4.7 to 5.3 per cent.