KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Moody's Analytics on Monday revised down Malaysia's real gross domestic product (GDP) forecast this year to 4.7 percent from 5.6 percent, due to heightened movement restrictions amid the spread of Delta variant.
"Given the continued rise of daily new cases of COVID-19, there is considerable downside risk that the current movement control order could extend into August. We will be following this closely and there could be further downward revisions for 2021," the rating agency's economist Steven Cochrane told Xinhua in an email.
He has also lowered Malaysia's GDP forecast next year to 3.4 percent from an earlier projection of 4 percent.
In his economic report issued on Monday, he said, Southeast Asia has lagged the pace of recovery in the Asia-Pacific region with GDP, as of the first quarter, still below pre-pandemic peaks.
"The spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 is disrupting the economic recovery of Southeast Asia in the third quarter given the strength of the current wave of the coronavirus and policy responses to it," he said.
Malaysia, for instance, has very strict movement control orders around its capital city Kuala Lumpur and the national capital region.
While the daily total new coronavirus caseload is higher in Indonesia, he noted, on a per capita basis Malaysia is far ahead of any other Asia Pacific country at this time. Enditem
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