Malaysia expects healthy growth rate of 4.9% this year
Malaysia’s economy continues to be strong and GDP is expected to expand a further 4.9 per cent in 2019 even with a decline in inflation, finance minister Lim Guan Eng said on February 24.
“Strong economic growth numbers, with the economy expanding by 4.7 per cent in 2018, immediately dispels any deflationary fears following the drop in the January 2019 Consumer Price Index by 0.7 per cent, the lowest in nearly ten years,” he said.
“The CPI decline proves that the government’s policy of abolishing the Goods & Services Tax and replacing it with the Sales & Services Tax and stabilising fuel prices with a ceiling price mechanism works by expanding the economic pie to benefit both businesses and the people,” he said in a statement, according to Malaysia’s news agency Bernama.
While saying that the January 2019 price decline was different from the 2009 deflation, Lim added that it did not arise from any weakening of demand or economic growth. Instead, the decline was largely caused by supply factors in the form of cheaper input cost, specifically cheaper fuel prices.
Price of RON95 petrol, for instance, was approximately 13 per cent lower in January 2019 compared to a year ago and this has positively affected the prices of a number of goods and services. The fuel price stabilisation policy, in particular, passed the savings from cheaper fuel prices directly to consumers immediately while the ceiling price mechanism protected them from high and soaring petrol prices.
Lim also said further proof that the economy was healthy was the fact that the Nielsen survey showed Malaysia’s consumer confidence stood at 118 points in the fourth quarter of 2018, 24 points higher from a year ago.
The jump is the highest among all countries surveyed and it placed Malaysian consumers as the 7th-most confident among 64 economies.
Additionally, approved foreign direct investments into manufacturing for the first nine months of 2018 rose to around $12 billion, or by 249 per cent, over the same period in 2017.
“These approved investments are expected to create an additional 41,000 quality manufacturing jobs in the next two to three years that can help improve local wages,” Lim added.
Malaysia's economy continues to be strong and GDP is expected to expand a further 4.9 per cent in 2019 even with a decline in inflation, finance minister Lim Guan Eng said on February 24. “Strong economic growth numbers, with the economy expanding by 4.7 per cent in 2018, immediately dispels any deflationary fears following the drop in the January 2019 Consumer Price Index by 0.7 per cent, the lowest in nearly ten years,” he said. "The CPI decline proves that the government’s policy of abolishing the Goods & Services Tax and replacing it with the Sales & Services Tax and...
Malaysia’s economy continues to be strong and GDP is expected to expand a further 4.9 per cent in 2019 even with a decline in inflation, finance minister Lim Guan Eng said on February 24.
“Strong economic growth numbers, with the economy expanding by 4.7 per cent in 2018, immediately dispels any deflationary fears following the drop in the January 2019 Consumer Price Index by 0.7 per cent, the lowest in nearly ten years,” he said.
“The CPI decline proves that the government’s policy of abolishing the Goods & Services Tax and replacing it with the Sales & Services Tax and stabilising fuel prices with a ceiling price mechanism works by expanding the economic pie to benefit both businesses and the people,” he said in a statement, according to Malaysia’s news agency Bernama.
While saying that the January 2019 price decline was different from the 2009 deflation, Lim added that it did not arise from any weakening of demand or economic growth. Instead, the decline was largely caused by supply factors in the form of cheaper input cost, specifically cheaper fuel prices.
Price of RON95 petrol, for instance, was approximately 13 per cent lower in January 2019 compared to a year ago and this has positively affected the prices of a number of goods and services. The fuel price stabilisation policy, in particular, passed the savings from cheaper fuel prices directly to consumers immediately while the ceiling price mechanism protected them from high and soaring petrol prices.
Lim also said further proof that the economy was healthy was the fact that the Nielsen survey showed Malaysia’s consumer confidence stood at 118 points in the fourth quarter of 2018, 24 points higher from a year ago.
The jump is the highest among all countries surveyed and it placed Malaysian consumers as the 7th-most confident among 64 economies.
Additionally, approved foreign direct investments into manufacturing for the first nine months of 2018 rose to around $12 billion, or by 249 per cent, over the same period in 2017.
“These approved investments are expected to create an additional 41,000 quality manufacturing jobs in the next two to three years that can help improve local wages,” Lim added.
