“The GDP growth number we are looking at, for the second quarter of 2011, is between 3.5 percent and 4 percent. If that materialises, then the overall picture for this year is not as robust as I initially thought it would be. But we should still have a GDP growth of 4 percent to 5 percent (for the full year),” MARC chief economist Nor Zahidi Alias said on the sidelines of the company's 2011 CEO Breakfast Forum yesterday.

For the first quarter of 2011, Malaysia recorded a GDP growth of 4.6 percent.

To recap, in May this year, Malaysia's exports grew by 5.4 percent year-on-year to RM55.1bil, while imports rose by 5.6 percent to RM 46.6 billion, according to a recent Statistics Department statement.

However, in May, both exports and imports declined month-on-month by 4.7 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.

Also, the sales value of the manufacturing sector in May this year decreased by 3.7 percent month-on-month although it posted a year-on-year growth of 8 percent to RM47.8bil.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Production Index (IPI) in May decreased by 5.1 percent year-on-year.