The economy of Malaysia is the 3rd largest in Southeast Asia, and is the 35th largest economy in the world. Malaysian labour productivity is significantly higher than neighbouring Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines or Vietnam due to a high density of knowledge-based industries and adoption of cutting edge technology for manufacturing and digital economy. According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2018, the Malaysian economy is the 25th most competitive country in the world in the period of 2018–19.

Malaysian citizens lead a much more affluent lifestyle compared to their peers in upper-middle income countries like Mexico, Turkey, and Brazil. This is due to a low national income tax, low cost of local food, transport fuel, household essentials, a fully subsidized single payer public-healthcare and comprehensive social welfare benefit with direct cash transfer. With an income per capita of 28,681 PPP Dollars (2017 World Bank) or 10,620 nominal US Dollars, Malaysia is the third wealthiest nation in Southeast Asia after the smaller city-states of Singapore and Brunei. Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, which is relatively open and state-oriented. The Malaysian economy is highly robust and diversified with the export value of high-tech products in 2015 standing at US$57.258 billion, the second highest after Singapore in ASEAN. Malaysia exports the second largest volume and value of palm oil products globally after Indonesia.

In 2015, Malaysia's economy was one of the most competitive in the world, ranking 14th in the world and 5th for countries with a population of over 20 million, higher than countries like Australia, United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan.

Malaysia is well-endowed with natural resources in areas such as agriculture, forestry and minerals. It is an exporter of natural and agricultural resources, the most valuable exported resource being petroleum.[68] In the agricultural sector, Malaysia is one of the top exporters of natural rubber and palm oil, which together with timber and timber products, cocoa, pepper, pineapple and tobacco dominate the growth of the sector.Read More