KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s economy last year contracted at its fastest pace in more than two decades, as the coronavirus shuttered businesses and hammered the country’s key exports, data showed Thursday. Full-year gross domestic product shrank 5.6 percent, the statistics department said, marking the worst performance since a 7.4-percent drop in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis. In the fourth quarter, GDP slipped 3.4 percent year-on-year, worse than had been forecast as a virus resurgence forced authorities to reimpose measures to curb its spread.

The Southeast Asian nation initially kept the virus in check by quickly imposing a lockdown last year that closed most businesses for weeks, but it was hit hard by a second wave once restrictions were eased.

Net exports fell 12.3 percent in 2020, official data showed. Malaysia’s economy is underpinned by exports of commodities including oil and gas, and palm oil as well as manufactured goods such as electronics. The manufacturing sector shrank 2.6 percent, the agricultural sector declined 2.2 percent, and construction shrank by a fifth.