THE Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) has published the Malaysian Economic Statistics Review (MESR) Vol.5/2020 today, which highlights Malaysia’s latest economic performance based on the recent statistics.
According to DOSM in a press statement, Chief Statistician Malaysia, Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin said DOSM had taken the initiative to release the MESR on a monthly basis to give an update on the latest performance of Malaysia’s economy.
He said, aside from the updates in MESR, the department has also released 85 newsletters that covers various economic and social subjects to facilitate users’ needs.
Elaborating further on the report, Mohd Uzir remarked: “With economic activities in Malaysia being reactivated, it has begun to show economic recoveries that were reflected by the macroeconomic indicators in July.
“This scenario has attributed to the increase in total labour force at 15.82 mil persons in July 2020 from 15.76 mil persons in the previous month, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.7% as against 4.8% in the preceding month.”
“In terms of turnover, the sales value of manufacturing sector increased to RM119.3 bil in July, which grew at 2.1% month on month. Wholesale & retail trade also showed a recovery in July by generating a sales value at RM108.7 bil with a growth of 5.6% as compared with the previous month.” Mohd Uzir stated.
He also noted that the favourable sales growth in this sub-sector was largely contributed by the sales of motor vehicles following the effective strategy of the government on tax relief.
The chief statistician went on to say that Malaysia’s merchandise trade recorded an increase in July this year, amounting to RM159.9 bil compared with RM144.7 bil in the previous month.
Explaining on that, he said, exports increased by 11.7% while imports rose 8.7%. In terms of year-on-year, exports increased by 3.1% while imports further declined in July 2020. In August, both exports and imports recorded a fall, nevertheless, trade balance continuously remained surplus.
Mohd Uzir highlighted that the role of tourism sector within the economy was vital as tourism-related activities engaged 23.6% of employment and contributed 15.9% or RM240.2 bil to the country’s economy in 2019.
“Furthermore, government has announced tourism initiatives to spur attractive promotion packages by travel agents, as well as hotels and accommodations industries, which in turn garnered encouraging responses and reinvigorated the domestic tourism activities for 2020.”
In summary he said: “The macroeconomic performance in July, marked the preliminary indication for the third quarter 2020. The outcome of the third quarter is expected to be better than the second quarter, given the continuous economic stimulus packages to support the overall economic growth. This is in line with the Leading Index which suggests economic recovery in the near term and projects a brighter economic prospect towards 2021.” – Sept 30, 2020
