KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 ― Malaysia’s small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021 increased 1.0 per cent, slower than Malaysia's GDP which grew 3.1 per cent, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said generally, the growth of SMEs’ GDP will exceed Malaysia's GDP but since 2020, the SMEs’ GDP has recorded slower growth than Malaysia's GDP.

"The contribution of SMEs to GDP declined to 37.4 per cent (2020: 38.1 per cent) with a value added of RM518.1 billion. The services and manufacturing sectors uphold their position as the main contributors with both sectors represent 83.0 per cent of SMEs’ GDP.

"In addition, SMEs’ GDP increased to RM572.6 billion in nominal terms this year against RM547.3 billion as reported in 2020. Nevertheless, SMEs’ economic performance in 2021 was still lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019,” he said.

Looking at SMEs’ GDP performance by kind of economic activity, Mohd Uzir said the manufacturing sector rebounded to 8.5 per cent from a decline of 2.9 per cent in the previous year.

"This favourable performance was supported by the expansion in all sub-sectors, particularly in petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products which surged by 14.4 per cent.

"Similarly, the value added of SMEs in the agriculture sector rose to 1.9 per cent from negative 0.7 per cent driven by growth in the Rubber, oil palm, livestock and other agriculture sub-sector,” he said.

On the other hand, he said SMEs’ value added in the mining and quarrying sector contracted 3.1 per cent in 2021 while the construction sector fell 4.6 per cent compared to -15.4 per cent in the preceding year.

He said the value added of SMEs in the services sector posted a decline of 1.2 per cent from -9.0 per cent in 2020 attributed to the Finance, insurance, real estate and business services sub-sector which deteriorated at 5.8 per cent.

"Nevertheless, this downturn was offset by performance in Wholesale & retail trade, food & beverages & accommodation and Transportation & storage & information & communication sub-sectors which grew 0.5 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively,” he added. ― Bernama