KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.7% in 2022, with the total value amounting to RM81.9 billion, surpassing 2021’s RM79 billion, the Sabah state legislative assembly was told today.
Assistant minister to the chief minister Abidin Madingkir said the positive growth was driven by a significant increase in the services sector, which is the main contributor to Sabah’s GDP, at 49.5% with RM40.6 billion.
He said the 8.6% growth in the services sector was driven by the improved performance of the main subsectors, namely the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector, food and beverage, accommodation, followed by the government services sector, utilities, transport, and storage, as well as information and communications.
“Despite being the second largest contributor to Sabah’s overall GDP, which is 24.8% or RM20.3 billion, the mining and quarrying sector showed a decline in growth of 1.3% in 2022, compared with 3.2% in 2021.
“The contraction of this sector is influenced by the decline of its main sub-sector, which is crude oil and condensate, to 4.4% and the natural gas sub-sector by 8.4%,” he said in response to an oral question from Hassan A Gani Pg Amir (GRS-Sebatik) regarding the main industries contributing to Sabah’s revenue.
Abidin added that Sabah’s agricultural sector recorded a decline of 0.2% to RM12.5 billion in 2022.
“However, this sector has performed better compared with the 2.2% decrease recorded in 2021. The agricultural sector is the third largest sector in Sabah with a contribution of 15.2% to the overall GDP of Sabah.
“The oil palm sub-sector dominates the agricultural sector in Sabah with a contribution of 9.6% to Sabah’s overall GDP, followed by the fisheries sub-sector (2.5%), other crops (1.3%) and livestock (1.0%),” he said.
The manufacturing sector recorded a negative growth of 2.5% with a decrease to RM5.8 billion compared with RM5.9 billion the previous year.
“The decline in this sector is due to the contraction in the subsector of oils and fats from vegetables and animals, food processing, beverages and tobacco products and the subsector of wood products, furniture, paper products and printing,” Abidin said.
He said the construction sector grew at a rate of 6.2% compared with 7.9% the previous year and this sector recorded an increase of RM2.5 billion compared with RM2.4 billion in 2021.
“This growth is supported by the consistent performance in the construction sub-sector, civil engineering and special carpentry construction activities,” he said.