Malaysia’s Deputy Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, says that the country’s GDP is still expected to be between 4% and 5% in 2023.
“We appreciate and respect the World Bank’s statement, as it was based on its analysis. But we will keep our forecast at around 4% to 5%. As there has been no change in terms of the projections or if there’s any big growth expected this year,” he said.
Ahmad said this on Tuesday after opening the Malaysia-China Entrepreneur Macro Health Forum and the Grand Sian Celebrity Charity Gala Night.
In April 2023, the World Bank predicted that Malaysia’s GDP would grow by 4.3%. However, now it thinks it will only increase by 3.9%.
Apurva Sanghi, the lead economist for Malaysia at the World Bank, said on Tuesday that the base effects of high growth last year and weak foreign demand. Which is apparent in the export numbers for the first two quarters, led to the downward projection.
He said that the outlook for 2024 is still good, and expect a growth rate of 4.3%. He said that this is because tourism is improving, the world economy is improving, and base effects are impacting.
In the meantime, Ahmad said the government could pay for the rice discount the Prime Minister announced on Monday.
He said that the ministry would get the money ready. So that they can fix the problems with the increasing price of imported white rice and local white rice.
“The Prime Minister has announced four intervention measures to help the people and groups cope with rice supply and demand.
“This includes channeling subsidies of between RM350mil and RM400mil for government premises. Such as military camps and police and school dormitories, to use imported rice, as a measure to increase local white rice supply in the market,” said Ahmad.
Malaysia’s Deputy Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, says that the country’s GDP is still expected to be between 4% and 5% in 2023.