Malaysia Q1 GDP Up 5.30%

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's real gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.Bank Negara Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said today the growth was driven by the strong performance of the services sector and continued recovery of the construction sector.She said the growth was achieved despite the slowdown in export performance and by the manufacturing sector."The growth in this quarter was broad based, with all major sectors of the economy except for mining registering positive growth," she told a news conference here.The GDP grew 5.7 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year, bringing the full year GDP growth to 5.9 percent.Zeti was confident Malaysia would be able to meet the full year target of six percent growth this year."Yes (we can achieve it), unless there is a change in external factors but we will continue to monitor these external factors closely," she said.Zeti said Malaysia's potential growth would be much clearer in the second half of the year.-- BERNAMA