Senator: Where did PM get RM1 trillion debt figure from?

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been questioned on how he came to the conclusion that the country's national debt has reached RM1 trillion.
Citing Bank Negara's report in December last year, senator Khairul Azwan Harun pointed out the country's national debt was RM686.8 billion.
"Where did the prime minister receive the RM1 trillion figure? Did his new advisers fail to provide him with the correct information?
"Or is this just a political blame-game tactic to make the rakyat think that the imminent national debt of the Pakatan Harapan government is the fault of the previous administration?" asked Khairul Azwan in a statement today.
Khairul Azwan, who is also Umno Youth deputy chief, further pointed out how Bank Negara's report in March this year showed that the country's domestic economy was doing well.
"Malaysia's economy is expected to grow at a firm pace of between 5.5 percent and 6 percent in 2018," he added.
In his first monthly assembly today as head of the Prime Minister's Department, Mahathir said the country's debt has passed the RM1 trillion mark compared with RM300 billion previously.
"We have found that our finance (status) eroded significantly (to the extent) we are having problems in (repaying) our debts, which have increased to a trillion ringgit," he said.
The national debt figure provided by Mahathir today is far higher than the official figure provided by the previous administration.
The finance ministry previously said the government recorded RM687.43 billion in debts as of September 2017.
Earlier this month, The Edge Financial Daily reported the government's debt had grown at an average of 10 percent a year from RM266.72 billion in 2007 to RM687.43 billion as of September 2017 due to excessive spending.
The financial daily warned that the national debt could exceed RM1 trillion by 2021 if it continues to grow at the same average rate of 10 percent as in the past decade.

Soon after assuming office as the nation's seventh prime minister on May 10, Mahathir pledged to reduce the government spending. -Mkini