KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's economy grew 4.2% in the first quarter of 2024 from a year earlier, beating market expectations, government and central bank data showed on Friday.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast gross domestic product growth of 3.9% in the January to March period, matching the advance estimate by the Statistics Department.Annual growth in the final quarter of 2023 was revised down slightly to 2.9%.

(Reporting by Danial Azhar and Rozanna Latiff; Editing by John Mair)