Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia's Department of Statistics (DOSM) has released a Malaysia Economic Statistics Review (MESR), which predicted that the country’s economy will become better despite negative impacts from restrictions due to COVID-19.

Malaysian chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said that business gained confidence towards the fourth quarter with the confidence indicator at minus 0.3 percent compared with minus 21.3 percent in the previous quarter.

He held that this is a sign of recovery in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 2022 when the country’s GDP is projected to expand 3-4 percent thanks to high vaccination ratio, support policies and high demand.

DOSM said that the Malaysian economy grew 3 percent in the first nine months of this year compared to minus 6.4 percent in the same period last year.

Uzir said that downturn was seen in all economic sectors, adding that Malaysian tourism sector suffered a drop of 4.9 percent in the thrid quarter of 2021.

However, the country’s trade rose 18.1 percent year on year thanks to domestic trade and high demands from the outside.

At the same time, Uzir said that Malaysia’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.9 percent in October rose 2.9 percent over the same period last year. He attributed the increase to a double-digit rise in the price of transportation group.

According to the DOSM, in the January-October period, the Southeast Asian country saw rise of 2.3 percent in CPI over the same period last year./.