Moody’s Analytics Asia Pacific Economic Preview noted that the country’s GDP contracted by 17.1% in Q2 2020, and Malaysia’s economy and external position were also affected by the large-scale shutdown across major economies.

However, its economist, Shahana Mukherjee, said that since then, overseas demand has picked up along with domestic spending as the localised outbreak is brought under control.

“These factors are expected to have revived domestic income in the September quarter,” she said in a research note today.

Moody’s Analytics said regionally, Indonesia’s Q3 GDP contracted by 3.5% compared with a decline of 5.3% in the previous quarter.

Hence, Indonesia has slipped into a recession for the first time since the Asian financial crisis in 1998.

The Philippines’ GDP is also likely to contract by 6%in Q3 following a decline of 16.5% in the previous quarter, as the strict lockdown weighed heavily on the country’s domestic investment and consumption, while exports plunged by 40%.