Malaysia GDP grew only .1 percent in the fourth quarter

From the Herald Tribune:

Malaysia's trade-driven economy grew a dismal 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 from a year earlier, bringing full-year growth to 4.6 percent, the government said Friday.

The manufacturing sector was badly hit, contracting by 8.8 percent in the October-December period after having recorded positive growth for the previous 26 quarters, the Department of Statistics said in a statement.

"The downturn in the global economic activity has the spillover effect on our local economy," the statement said. Third-quarter gross domestic product growth had been 4.7 percent.

Falling foreign demand caused double-digit declines in the fourth quarter for some manufacturing industries, including electrical and electronic goods and metal products.

The construction and mining sectors also suffered negative growth, but the services sector — which includes retail trade, insurance and transport — recorded a 5.6 percent modest rise to be the main contributor to economic growth.

Don't be fooled by the headline numbers that compared to other countries Malaysia didn't fall year over year as much. While that is true, even Singapore was still able to grow at 1.1%. This number is absolutely dismal. Furthermore, Singapore had much higher exposure to the recession due to their well developed financial industry and were still able to grow more than Malaysia, which has "much less" exposure apparently.