‘Very slim’ chance of Malaysia going broke, says Tengku Zafrul

 

Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said the International Monetary Fund is confident that Malaysia’s GDP will increase at a rate of 5.75% this year. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz has assured that Malaysia will not become bankrupt like Sri Lanka despite Putrajaya’s rising expenditure.

Tengku Zafrul said Malaysia’s economy was far stronger than Sri Lanka’s.

“The chances of Malaysia becoming bankrupt are very slim. In fact, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has never stated that Malaysia is experiencing economic problems that can result in bankruptcy.

“On the contrary, the IMF is optimistic about Malaysia’s growth prospects and is confident that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) will increase at a rate of 5.75% this year,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.

-ADVERTISEMENT-

Ads by 

He was responding to a question from Ahmad Maslan (BN-Pontian), who asked about the government’s increasing expenditure and debts potentially leading to bankruptcy.

Last week, Tengku Zafrul revealed that Malaysia’s foreign currency debt amounted to RM29.4 billion at the end of June. He said the government’s statutory debts amounted to 60.4% of GDP.

However, he assured that Malaysia’s financial position remained strong and that its debt level was under control.

On a separate matter, Tengku Zafrul said the government was in the early stages of testing a targeted petrol subsidy system.

He said testing would take three to six months before the system was ready for implementation nationwide.

He also said Putrajaya would review the effectiveness of each subsidy and the aid initiatives currently provided, adding that it would examine additional revenue sources.

The government currently provides subsidies for chicken, eggs, cooking oil in 1kg polybags and petrol.

Tengku Zafrul is the second person in recent days to provide an assurance on the strength of the economy.

Last Friday, former prime minister Najib Razak pointed to the economic differences between Sri Lanka and Malaysia. He said that unlike Malaysia, Sri Lanka lacked foreign currency reserves to purchase imported goods and settle its foreign currency debts. - FMT