Malaysian businesses remain positive on their prospects for the second quarter albeit at a slower pace, with a confidence indicator registering 3.5pc compared to 7.6pc in the first quarter, official data showed Thursday.
Despite the reopening of Malaysia’s international borders anticipated to spur economic activities, Malaysian businesses stay cautious about their prospect amid inflation pressure, supply chain and labour shortages issues, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) in a statement. According to the DOSM, all sectors except for the construction sector anticipate better business conditions in the second quarter. The wholesale and retail trade sector is the most optimistic about its business outlook as the confidence indicator for wholesale and retail trade increased for three quarters in a row, with 15.5pc in the second quarter from 4pc in the preceding quarter. Meanwhile, the services sector predicts the business situation to improve at a moderate rate with the confidence indicator of 5.6pc in the second quarter compared to 11.1pc in the first quarter. Concurrently, the industry sector expects their business performance to grow at a slower pace in the second quarter of 2022 with 0.8pc. The agriculture and mining sub sectors in particular anticipate unfavourable business conditions in the reference quarter. On the other hand, the confidence indicator for the construction sector improved in the second quarter with minus 23.2pc as against minus 40.4pc in the first quarter.