KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — The manufacturing and agriculture sectors are among the main contributors to the country’s economic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Arthur Joseph Kurup.
He said the latest indicators that showed the better economic achievement included the Manufacturing Sector Production Index Performance which increased by 2.1 per cent in September 2020 compared to a contraction of 2.1 per cent in August 2020.
The sales value of the manufacturing sector also recorded an increase of 3.7 per cent in September to RM121.2 billion, he added.
Besides that, he said the price of crude palm oil has once again rallied above the RM3,000 per tonne level to RM3,422 per tonne in November 2020 compared to the lowest level of RM2,074 per tonne in May 2020.
“The price of SMR20 rubber rose to its highest level of RM6.33 per kilogramme in November 2020 from the lowest price level of RM4.73 per kilogramme in April 2020,” he said in response to a question from Rubiah Wang (GPS-Kota Samarahan) at the Dewan Rakyat today.
Rubiah wanted to know which economic sectors contributed the most and helped the country’s economic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arthur said the services sector was the largest sector that contributed to the country’s economic growth in 2019, accounting for 57.7 per cent to gross domestic product (GDP).
“The second largest sector was the manufacturing sector which contributed 22.3 per cent to GDP, followed by the agriculture sector, as well as mining and quarrying, with each contributing 7.1 per cent,” he said, adding that the fifth sector was the construction sector which contributed 4.7 per cent to GDP during the same period.
