In its latest edition of the World Bank Malaysia Economic Monitor: Sowing the Seeds launched today, the report revealed that the successful containment of the third wave and effective roll out and distribution of vaccine could lead to a faster-than-expected recovery in consumer demand.

This would in turn promote greater investor confidence, and consequently a more robust recovery in domestic economic activity in 2021.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of economy Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said Malaysia’s economic growth is expected to be ‘quite bad’ in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2020 due to the resurgence of the Covid-19 cases in October and November.

However, he did not specify any projection but warned that the negative numbers could be recorded due the re-imposition of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) with some stricter rules in selected parts of the country in the last two months of 2020.

“Q4 is going to be a lot more challenging than we were anticipated earlier. During the mid-year, the general expectation that there was going to be a gradual economic recovery in Q4.

“But now, it (restriction) has been eased up and that will result in quicker recovery of the economy towards the end of this year,” he said during a panel discussion with the World Bank representative to Malaysia and country manager Dr Firas Raad today.

Mustapa said one of the government’s priorities is to expedite the recovery process by easing the CMCO, which began on December 7.

“At the beginning of the year, our priorities were health and the protection of the people’s lives, while ensuring there was food on the table.

“Besides the priority on health, now we need to ensure that lives and jobs are protected. We have continued the scheme to subsidise wages (jobs) under the 2021 Budget. The latest number of unemployment stood at 4.6 percent in September with 750,000 people jobless.”

He said the unemployment rate might experience a slight increase in October and assured that the government was on track in preparing for recovery, in particular, the job market.