Economy Drying Up : 2014 6%, 2015 5%, 2016 4%, 2017 3% (?) 2018 ?

Here is some really wacky news :  

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/05/09/gst-subsidy-rationalisation-economic-uncertainties
 

• Najib: GST, subsidy rationalisation helped weather economic uncertainties
• GST and rationalisation of subsidies gave Govt income 
• to spend in economic uncertainty, said Najib
• enabled Govt to give civil servants pay rise 
• build Pan Borneo Highway despite slow economy
• increased minimum wage implemented this July
• Pan Borneo Highway, RM16bil for S'wak and RM12bil for Sabah
• due to proactive measures we took
• if not for GST, subsidy rationalisation economy like Greece said Najib

My comments : I have said this before, Najib does not know whether he is coming or going.  He does not even realise what he is saying.

Najib helped exactly who to weather the economic uncertainties?  Not the people. 

The job of the gomen is to help the people. Yes or no?

But the gomen has not helped the people weather uncertainties. 

Najib is crowing that his gomen made the people poorer by taxing them GST and removing subsidies "to give the civil servants salary hikes".  Banyak cantik.

The gomen does not exist for civil servants. 

The gomen exists for the taxpayer and all the citizens of the country.  Someone should tell this to Najib.  

Robbing the ordinary citizen of his income just to give the civil servants a salary hike (despite slow economy) is not a clever thing to do.

Someone should tell this to Najib. It is exactly the other way around. The taxpayers and the people are suffering exactly because of a   slow economy .  

Unemployment is rising, prices are rising, businesses are shutting down exactly because of a slow economy.  

In such a situation  the taxpayer and the average private sector worker cannot expect salary hikes or bonuses. 

Then comes Najib and imposes more burden on the taxpayers and the people through the GST and removal of subsidies and then takes all those taxes collected to give the civil servants salary hikes?? This guy is really slow on a Monday.

If the economy is slow the gomen and the ministers must take salary cuts and cut spending until the economy recovers.  Give the taxpayers and the workers more breathing room.

If you tax them more, you are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. 


How come the GDP growth is slowing down?  

How come the gomen says 400,000 people were unemployed in 2015?

Of this number 161,000 were graduates or tertiary educated. 

In January 2016 the number of unemployed was 500,000.  Graduates maybe almost 200,000. 

The single largest group (90% ?) are of course Malays and bumiputras. 

How come the expatriate professionals are still flying into the country.  I will not say from which country the majority are coming but it is not from Nigeria, Iran or Pakistan.  But thousands of foreign professionals are still coming to work in Malaysia. I know where many of them live.

The DPM said he wanted to import 1.5 million Banglas. When it was pointed out that everyone knew his brother's outfit would be importing them, he reacted like a child being caught with his hands in the cookie jar and banned the import of all foreign labour. 

What does this mean? It means our workers and graduates (the majority of whom are Malay)  are not relevant to the economy.  

The economy seems to function without them.  

The expats are still needed - to fill the vacuum created by incompetent locals. Yes that is what it means. The Banglas are still highly sought after by the workplace.

And how come the GDP growth is still sliding? What pro-active measures ?

I got this from a comment at Dr Mahathir's blog.  The GDP growth was/is like this:

2014   6%

2015   5%

2016   4%

2017   3% (est)

2018   2% (est) ? 

The GST (since April 2015) is really killing the economy.  Businesses and shops have shut down.  I disagree with that one SME fellow who is saying otherwise. All businesses have been hit with poor sales since the GST was implemented.

The consumer has easily lost about 12% - 18% of his purchasing power because of price hikes after the GST.  I really do not believe all these "official" inflation figures at 3% and 4%.  

Here is something from the Khazanah Research Institute :

Prices of food consumed away from home increased by 4.8% in February 

Prices Of Food Consumed Away From Home Increased By 4.4% In September (2015)

The cost of eating out increased 4.8% in Feb 2016 and 4.4% in September 2015. That is inflation. I think it is much higher than that. The Ringgit is on the roller coaster again. It is the worst performing Asian currency this quarter.

1MDB has another RM200 million interest payment coming up tomorrow 11/05/2016. From the reports, they are not going to make it. 

http://m.malaysiakini.com/news/340944

• 1MDB faces second default as coupon payment due tomorrow
• 10 May 2016
• 1MDB possible default coupon payment for US$1.75 billion bond Thurs
• follows failure to pay US$50.3 m interest on another US$1.75b  last month
• Both bonds g'teed by IPIC, in dispute with 1MDB 
• If 1MDB fails to pay, will trigger another round of cross-default 
• including US$1.83 billion (RM7.4 billion) Islamic bonds 
• 1MDB April 18 failed US$50.3 m interest payment after five-day grace period

Even our banks are not very healthy :

http://m.malaysiakini.com/news/340929

• JP Morgan downgrades Malaysia to 'underweight'
• 10 May 2016
• JP Morgan today downgraded Malaysia's status to underweight
• concern about Malaysian banks
• account for 30% of iShares MSCI Malaysia ETF (EWM) 
• main reasons for downgrade
• Negative outlook on financials 
• increasing credit costs due to declining loan and deposit growth. 
• Banks are grappling with rising NPLs (to peak at 3.1% in 2018)
• iShares MSCI Malaysia ETF fallen 7.7% in 2nd quarter
• second worst performing market in Asia after Taiwan
  

All this is happening because Najib and his entire team are incompetent. Nincompoops one and all. They really do not know if they are coming or going. 

Hence Najib can make those unthinking statements and think that he is being very clever. If only stupidity was a crime.