Malaysia GDP Growth Below Expectations Stuns Rally

Malaysia’s economy grew at its slowest pace in three years in the first quarter prompting analysts to revise their growth forecasts for this year, less than two weeks after an election win for the country’s ruling party sparked a wave of optimism about the country’s outlook.
First quarter gross domestic product data (GDP) released late on Wednesday showed Southeast Asia’s third biggest economy grew a weaker-than-expected 4.1 percent from a year earlier on poor exports, down from a strong 6.5 percent in the final three months of last year.
That news helped knock Malaysian stocks down almost 0.8 percent to around 1,769 on Thursday, about 3 percent below a record high hit on May 6 – a day after Malaysia’s ruling coalition party returned to power after a closely-run general election, easing concerns about political uncertainty.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza