Malaysia's 4.4% economic growth in Q1 2025 a result of resilient domestic fundamentals: DOSM

The country’s GDP growth remained firm despite persistent global headwinds, according to Chief Statistician of Malaysia Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) released its advance Gross Domestic Products (GDP) estimates for the first quarter of 2025 last Friday (18 April). Based on the data, the advance estimates indicated a 4.4% growth in Malaysia’s economy. This amount had eased from the 5% expansion in the previous quarter.

Chief Statistician of Malaysia Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin reported that the country’s GDP growth remained firm despite persistent global headwinds as domestic fundamentals were resilient.         

The manufacturing sector in particular recorded a 4.8% increase in output in February. This result was largely driven by export-oriented industries. Seasonal events such as Chinese New Year, Ramadan and the reopening of the new school year supported the overall economic activities to keep it on the positive track. These seasons contributed to an increased performance in distributive sales, recording a rise of 5.1% in February as compared to 4.6% in January. Amongst the distributive sales, the retail and wholesale trade were the two main pillars of support which drove this overall increase.

Looking at the labour market, it experienced a continuous rise in employment, accompanied with a stable unemployment rate of 3.1%.

In terms of sectoral performance, the services sector remained to be the main driver of economic growth, recording a 5.2% growth. This result is attributedto  the wholesale & retail trade, transportation & storage, and information & communication sub-sectors. The manufacturing sector also saw a growth of 4.2% from the strong output in the electrical, electronic & optical products sector, together with the vegetable and animal oils & fats and food processing sectors.

Adding on, Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin said that the construction sector had recorded its fifth consecutive quarter of a double-digit growth at 14.5% and the agriculture sector recording an increase of 0.7% increase.

Unfortunately, the mining and quarrying sector continued to decline further to -4.9% which reflected the lower cost productions across all sub-sectors.

Following this advance estimates data release, a preliminary GDP data will be set to be released on 16 May, detailing a more comprehensive analysis of the economic performance of the first quarter of 2025.

READ MORE: Malaysia’s labour market outlook remains positive in 2025, following performance in Q4 2024: DOSM