GDP growth records fastest upturn since Q1 2023 in the first quarter

Q1 growth records the best result in 2 years: A preliminary report shows that GDP growth increased to 4.2% year on year in the first quarter from 2.9% in the fourth quarter of last year. Q1’s reading marked the best result since Q1 2023.

Drivers: The upturn reflected broad-based improvements. Private consumption grew to 4.7% year-on-year in Q1 compared to a 4.2% expansion in Q4. Government consumption hit an over two-year high of 7.3% in the first quarter, up from the fourth quarter's 5.8%. Meanwhile, fixed investment growth accelerated to 9.6% in Q1 from 6.4% in the previous quarter. Exports of goods and services bounced back, growing 5.2% year on year in the first quarter (Q4 2023: -7.9% yoy), marking the best reading since Q4 2022. Additionally, imports of goods and services also bounced back, growing by 8.0% in Q1 (Q4 2023: -2.6% yoy). Economic activity rebounded on a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis, expanding 1.4% in Q1, contrasting the previous period’s 1.0% decrease.

How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Malaysian GDP projections for the next ten years from a panel of 33 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable GDP forecast available for Malaysian GDP.

Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Malaysian GDP projections.

Want to get access to the full dataset of Malaysian GDP forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.