Economy - overview:
Malaysia, a middle-income country, transformed itself from 1971 through the late 1990s from a producer of raw materials into an emerging multi-sector economy. Growth was almost exclusively driven by exports - particularly of electronics. As a result Malaysia was hard hit by the global economic downturn and the slump in the information technology (IT) sector in 2001 and 2002. GDP in 2001 grew only 0.5% due to an estimated 11% contraction in exports, but a substantial fiscal stimulus package equal to US $1.9 billion mitigated the worst of the recession and the economy rebounded in 2002 with a 4.1% increase. The economy grew 4.9% in 2003, notwithstanding a difficult first half, when external pressures from SARS and the Iraq War led to caution in the business community. Healthy foreign exchange reserves and a relatively small external debt make it unlikely that Malaysia will experience a crisis similar to the one in 1997, but the economy remains vulnerable to a more protracted slowdown in Japan and the US, top export destinations and key sources of foreign investment. The Malaysian ringgit is pegged to the dollar, and the Japanese central bank continues to intervene and prop up the yen against the dollar.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $207.2 billion (2003 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
4.9% (2003 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $9,000 (2003 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 8.4%
industry: 45.3%
services: 46.3% (2002 est.)
Population below poverty line:
8% (1998 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1.4%
highest 10%: 39.2% (2003 est.)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
49.2 (1997)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1.2% (2003 est.)
Labor force:
10.4 million (2003 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 14.5%, industry 36%, services 49.5% (2000 est.)
Unemployment rate:
3.4% (2003 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $25.2 billion
expenditures: $28.9 billion, including capital expenditures of $9.4 billion (2004 est.)
Industries:
Peninsular Malaysia - rubber and oil palm processing and manufacturing, light manufacturing industry, electronics, tin mining and smelting, logging and processing timber; Sabah - logging, petroleum production; Sarawak - agriculture processing, petroleum production and refining, logging
Industrial production growth rate:
8.5% (2003 est.)
Electricity - production:
75.33 billion kWh (2002)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 89.5%
hydro: 10.5%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
68.4 billion kWh (2002)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2002)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2002)
Oil - production:
690,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)
Oil - consumption:
460,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)
Oil - exports:
230,200 bbl/day (2003)
Oil - imports:
NA
Oil - proved reserves:
3.729 billion bbl (1 January 2002)
Natural gas - production:
53.66 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
31.25 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
22.41 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
2.23 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)
Agriculture - products:
Peninsular Malaysia - rubber, palm oil, cocoa, rice; Sabah - subsistence crops, rubber, timber, coconuts, rice; Sarawak - rubber, pepper; timber
Exports:
$98.4 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
Exports - commodities:
electronic equipment, petroleum and liquefied natural gas, wood and wood products, palm oil, rubber, textiles, chemicals
Exports - partners:
US 20.2%, Singapore 17.1%, Japan 11.3%, Hong Kong 5.7%, China 5.6%, Thailand 4.3% (2002)
Imports:
$74.4 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
Imports - commodities:
electronics, machinery, petroleum products, plastics, vehicles, iron and steel products, chemicals
Imports - partners:
Japan 17.8%, US 16.5%, Singapore 12%, China 7.7%, Taiwan 5.6%, South Korea 5.3%, Thailand 4% (2002)
Debt - external:
$39.94 billion (2003 est.)
Currency:
ringgit (MYR)
Currency code:
MYR
Exchange rates:
ringgits per US dollar - 3.8 (2003), 3.8 (2002), 3.8 (2001), 3.8 (2000), 3.8 (1999)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
