Malaysia GDP rose 5.9% in 2017

This was highly driven by private sector demands.

The Central Bank of Malaysia reported that the country’s GDP increased from 4.2% in 2016 to 5.9% last year.

According to the Central Bank, the increase was mainly due to high private consumption, increasing by 7% in Q4 for the year because of growth in employment and wages, as well as high private investments, which rose to 9.2% because of positive business sentiments and strong investment intentions.

Meanwhile, services and manufacturing sectors drove growth on the supply side during the fourth quarter last year.

Further, headline inflation eased from 2.1% in 2016 to 3.7% in 2017, which was due to lower prices in housing, water, electricity and gas, and transport categories.