18.08.201700:38:00UTC+00Malaysia GDP Growth Improves Unexpectedly In Q2

Malaysia's economic growth accelerated unexpectedly in the three months ended June, figures from the Department of Statistics showed Friday.

Gross domestic product advanced 5.8 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, faster than the 5.6 percent rise in the Mach quarter. Meanwhile, economists had expected the growth to ease to 5.4 percent.

During the fourth quarter of the previous year, the rate of expansion was 4.5 percent.

Malaysia's economy remained its uptrend momentum since second quarter of 2016.

On the expenditure side, private final consumption expenditure grew 7.1 percent annually in the second quarter and gross fixed capital formation rose by 4.1 percent.

Both exports and exports climbed by 9.6 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.

Quarter-on-quarter, the seasonally adjusted GDP increased at a slower pace of 1.3 percent in the June quarter, following a 1.8 percent growth in the preceding three-month period.

Separately, the statistical office revealed that the current account surplus of the country rose to MYR 9.6 billion in the second quarter from MYR 5.3 billion in the first quarter.