Numbers point to rising income and employment, says Bank Negara
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) figures show the economy is becoming healthier, with growth happening across many sectors.
“If earlier, the economic sectors experiencing a strong momentum revolved around exportoriented manufacturing, the spillover from that trend is becoming more entrenched in other sectors,” said Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).
The economy expanded 5.9 per cent last year, higher than the 4.2 per cent and 5 per cent registered in 2016 and 2015 respectively.
BNM said the numbers pointed to rising income and employment in the economy.
“The commodity sector has also improved, boosting rural income. The ringgit’s appreciation reflected the improvement in the economy,” the central bank said in response to questions posed by Bernama on factors that will ensure Malaysia’s growth and if it would be inclusive.
It said the global economy showed growth in many regions.
Indicators — such as production, consumption, shipping and commodity prices — showed improving trends, pointing to a sustained global growth this year.
The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development have revised the global growth forecast upwards.
“Being an open economy, and with domestic growth drivers being healthy, Malaysia is likely to do well.”
As for job creation, vacancies and layoffs in the financial industry in Malaysia, it said employment in the financial services sector remained strong at 164,885 persons at the end of the fourth quarter last year.
Job opportunities remained ample with new jobs created, driven mainly by high-skilled jobs.
“The rationalisation of jobs was mainly at the lower level as automation began to take place on a larger scale in the sector,” it said
More training programmes required by more knowledge- and technology-intensive jobs have to be undertaken to fill the gap for these jobs.
“Job layoffs remain low at 775 persons during the quarter and are outnumbered by a combination of new jobs created of 1,170 positions and the high stock of job vacancies of 5,609 positions.”
On banking secrecy and protection of customer information confidentiality safeguarded in the Financial Services Act 2013, the central bank said secrecy was the cornerstone of confidence in the banking system, as such, it was vital that confidentiality in the banking system was preserved at all times.
“The public must have confidence in the safety and secrecy of their deposits and dealings with their bankers, and confidence in the integrity and professional conduct of bankers.”
This confidentiality is provided under Section 133 of the Financial Services Act 2013 and Section 145 of the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013.
“The secrecy provision prohibits any person, including director, officer or agent of financial institutions, to disclose to another person any document or information relating to the affairs or account of the customers of the financial institutions.”
Banks are required to have governance and internal controls to preserve customer confidentiality. “FSA 2013 and IFSA 2013 also provide protection to whistleblower who reports wrongdoings, similar to the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010, as long as proper procedures are followed, for example, reporting to the relevant enforcement authority.”
The public must have confidence in the safety and secrecy of their deposits and dealings with their bankers, and confidence in the integrity and professional conduct of bankers.