KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 7.3 percent to 512.8 billion ringgit (about 121.19 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit Malaysia's businesses, official data showed Wednesday.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that the prolonged health crisis caused by the pandemic in 2020 has affected Malaysia's businesses especially the SMEs.
The nationwide movement control order which includes various measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in a decline of all Malaysia's economic sectors, it added.
"The SMEs' GDP for the year 2020 contracted 7.3 percent, higher than the decline in Malaysia's GDP and Non-SMEs GDP which registered negative 5.6 percent and negative 4.6 percent respectively. Since 2004, this was the first time the SMEs performance was lower than Malaysia's GDP and Non-SMEs GDP," it said.
SMEs contributed 38.2 percent to Malaysia's total GDP last year.
According to the DOSM, SMEs GDP for all sectors recorded a negative growth in 2020.
SMEs value added for the services sector decreased 9.2 percent in 2020; construction sector declined by 15.4 percent; manufacturing sector fell 2.9 percent; mining and quarrying sector dropped by 7.1 percent; agriculture sector slipped 0.3 percent. Enditem