Malaysia's economy contracted in the year 2020 at the fastest pace since the 1998 Asian financial crisis as the coronavirus pandemic weighed on household spending and investment, data from the Bank Negara Malaysia showed on Thursday.
In 2020, gross domestic product was down 5.6 percent, in contrast to the 4.3 percent expansion posted in 2019. The latest decrease was the largest since 1998.
Due to the second wave of infection, GDP dropped at a faster pace of 3.4 percent annually in the fourth quarter, after easing 2.6 percent a quarter ago. This was the third consecutive fall and bigger than the economists' forecast of -3.1 percent.
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