The World Bank has raised Malaysia's economic growth forecast for 2024 to 4.9%, which is an increase of 0.6 percentage points from the previous forecast of 4.3% in April 2024 following the country's stronger than expected performance in the first half of the year.
Malaysia's economy shows strong growth in consumption, investment and trade activities.
According to the World Bank's economist for Malaysia, Dr Apurva Sanghi said Malaysia is benefiting from the up cycle in global economic growth which is expected to stabilize at around 2.6% this year despite continued geopolitical tensions and high interest rates.
Overall, the Malaysian economy is in a relatively good place with second quarter growth of 5.9% exceeding expectations and inflation of less than 2% which is positive from the previous quarter.
In addition, year-on-year investment increases in the first half of 2024 with approved foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic investment.
From a local point of view, Malaysia's own political stability and an increasingly conducive positive environment are among the factors that contribute to the country's strong economic growth as well as increasing investor confidence and mobilizing more investment in the country.
The World Bank's forecast is higher than Malaysia's official projection for gross domestic product growth of between 4% and 5% for 2024 following a 3.7% expansion in 2023.
He also said, the assumption for the USD/MYR exchange rate is at 4.54 while the average annual growth rate is 4.3%.
The World Bank expects Malaysia to achieve the status of a high-income country by 2028 which is the same as the previous 2021 projection that it will happen between 2024 and 2028.
