KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's economy likely grew by 3.3% in the third quarter of the year, the statistics department said on Friday, citing advance estimates.

This compares to 2.9% in the previous quarter, the department said in a report.

It was the first time in recent years that Malaysia has released advanced estimates for gross domestic product.

In terms of quarter-on-quarter performance, it said the economy turned around to 5.2% from a 0.8% decline in the second quarter of the year.

The performance was attributed to the growth in the services, construction and agriculture sectors, the department said.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi and Danial Azhar; Editing by Martin Petty)