Malaysians’ dining out habit lower their disposable income

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said that Malaysians are addicted to dining out and spend a lot of money on it.

He told Malaysiakini that the reason Malaysians spend more of their income on dining out is because of policies from the past.

“The one that is most elastic and most difficult to come down is actually cooked and takeaway food,” he was quoted as saying with regard to household spending.

“That’s why we have the dichotomy when it comes to inflation, it looks healthy. It’s about 2 per cent, 2.5 per cent.

“But by and large, the public feel that it just cannot be right because they feel that they don’t have enough at month-end,” he reportedly said.

This is because of unintended consequences of policies in the past. It is due to the economy and the wage.

Even though food prices have gone up because past governments have moved away from agriculture. Rafizi is said to have said that it is hard to get Malaysians to grow things like ginger and chili again.

Other countries view dining out as a leisure activity. You spend more on raw ingredients, cooking, and eating, and occasionally go out to eat.

 

ALSO READ: Maintain Minimum Wage While Progressive Wage Policy Remains Voluntary

From the highest level, Malaysians are addicted to imported food because for decades. As we didn’t think that it’s worthwhile making food. Malaysians had enough money to import, and we are paying the price now.

Rafizi also said that policy mistakes made Malaysian families have to dine out or get food delivered to survive.

“It’s also about the time the people spend on traveling to and for work, and how much time they have when they return from work to prepare food.

These are all the things that are the unintended consequences of many policies of the past.

The 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) Mid-Term Review (MTR) was released last week. Rafizi said that looking at family spending through the lens of behavioral economics will help Malaysians’ economic well-being. He explained that this helps the government make policies.

The change from broad fuel subsidies to specific programs is needed from an economic point of view. It won’t mean the end of the unity government, he was quoted as saying.

Instead, he said it would improve Malaysians’ lives. Also, it would help the government do better at the polls.

The problems with targeted subsidies need to be looked at from “a much bigger macro perspective.”

“My view is the reason why subsidy retargeting was very problematic before is because it was always approached from the requirement of the government to manage its funding.

“The bigger macro perspective, whether we like it or not, it’s not just about cost, it’s not just about the government’s requirement to fix its spending, it is also about salary and jobs,” he was quoted as saying.

SOURCE: Malaysiakini