Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has revealed that Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for this year is very likely to exceed the earlier projection of between 6.5% and 7.0%. Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said sentiment remains positive at the end of 2022 with encouraging economic performance following the reopening of the economy amid the transition to the COVID-19 endemic phase. He noted that the unemployment rate also dropped to 3.6% in October 2022. However, he said, labour participation has not returned fully to the level before the COVID-19 crisis when the unemployment rate was 3.3%, and the jobless rate for youth below 25 years old is still worryingly high at 10%. Anwar said the government will spare no effort to strengthen the economic indicators, restore investor confidence and rebuild the country.