MALAYSIA’S DEBT HITS 65% OF NAT’L PRODUCTION, MAHATHIR SAYS
KUALA LUMPUR— Contrary to former declarations of then Prime Minister Najib Razak, Malaysia’s national debt has reached 65 percent of the GDP, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Wednesday.
“I’ve been informed that our debt is actually 1 trillion ringgit ($251.67 billion), but today we were able to study and look for ways to reduce this debt,” Mahathir said.
1st Cabinet meeting
After its first meeting, Mahathir said the new Cabinet would study how to cut down the debt, including stopping projects and cutting salaries of Cabinet ministers.
Mahathir blamed the increase in the national debt of Southeast Asia’s third largest to abuses by the ousted government, led by Najib, who earlier said the debt was below 55 percent of GDP.
Cabinet pay cut
Mahathir, 92, said Cabinet ministers’ salaries may be cut by 10 percent and that his gov- ernment would decide “very soon” on the date of the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur high-speed rail project.
“This will be managed by the finance minister and in our downsizing process, no one with lower salaries will be affected,” he added.
Mahathir said many of the figures recording the country’s financial position during the Najib government might be false.
Najib faces a graft probe into a multibillion-dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Authorities have searched properties owned by Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, and seized cash and items, including jewelry and luxury handbags, estimated to be worth millions of dollars.
Najib denies wrongdoing.
Review plane search cost
Mahathir also said he would review the search by a US firm for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which disappeared on on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, in one of the world’s biggest aviation mysteries.—