Govt eyes new measures to boost growth
KUALA LUMPUR: The government may introduce a stimulus package to bolster the national economy and is looking at specific areas, says Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani.
He, however, did not elaborate on the areas that would undergo the restructuring process, but said the ministry was undertaking the necessary processes with specific focus groups and would make a decision once they had been completed.
On when economic measures would be unveiled, Johari said: “The prime minister (Datuk Seri Najib Razak) will do it. We will provide him with the information and feedback.
“We have to be very mindful about anything that we want to do. We have to look at our capacity — the government’s capacity and ability to have the revenues — to do whatever that we need to do because we cannot simply do something that needs us to continue borrowing.
“These are something that we need to strike a balance. (For) any budget, we have to look at what would be our estimate on the revenue. From there, we would know how we are going to spend the money,” he said at a press conference after attending the official opening of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research’s (Mier) 31st National Economic Briefing, here, yesterday.
Earlier in his speech, Johari said beyond the current challenges, the global and domestic mega trends were expected to create a more challenging and competitive landscape for Malaysia in the longer term.
“These include the current low productivity structure hindering innovation as well as demographic changes that may pose challenges in terms of socio-economic pressures.
“The latter, coupled with the rising cost of living, may pose a risk to our growth sustainability.”
Against the backdrop of a challenging operating environment, Johari assured that the authorities remained vigilant and focused on strengthening future resilience and accelerating the country’s transition into a higher value-added and highincome economy.
“Private sector participation would remain a key driver to ensure this aspiration is progressively realised to benefit the country,” he said, adding that continued dialogue among policymakers, think tanks and industry captains could be one of the steps to strengthen the building blocks for effective cooperation and collaboration in the future.
Meanwhile, Mier has maintained its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast of 4.2 per cent for this year.
The country’s top economic think tank said the estimation was in line with the government’s target of 4.0 to 4.5 per cent growth despite the current discouraging global prospects.
Mier executive director Dr Zakariah Abdul Rashid said the shortcoming was expected to be compensated by improved domestic demand as a result of an expansionary monetary policy.
He said growth would be driven largely by private sector expenditures as liquidity condition improved.
“For 2016, we are projecting 4.2 per cent gross domestic product growth. We may review our forecast on a quarterly basis, but for now we will keep our forecast,” he added.