Malaysia to sustain growth, hit highincome status by 2024

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s economy is projected to expand at 4.7 per cent in 2019 and 4.6 per cent in 2020 despite challenges, while the country is expected to achieve high-income nation status at some point between 2020 and 2024, says the World Bank.

For 2018, Malaysia’s economic growth is expected to moderate in the near term, growing at 4.9 per cent, underpinned by continued strong growth in private consumption.

In 2017, Malaysia’s economy expanded 5.9 per cent.

“As a highly open economy, Malaysia will continue to face substantial risks relating to uncertainty in the external environment,” it said in its latest economic report on the region.

In “Navigating Uncertainty”, the October 2018 edition of the East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, the World Bank said heightened financial market volatility, either triggered by shifting monetary policy expectations in advanced economies or crisis in other regions, could spread across emerging economies, including Malaysia, through capital outflows and pressures on exchange rates.

“Another key risk relates to the escalation in protectionist tendencies and trade tensions in some major economies which could have an adverse impact on Malaysia, given its high level of integration with global markets and its dependence on global value chains as a source of growth,” said the bank. — Bernama