Despite an army of naysayers constantly nipping at Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s heel, United States-based business and markets news site Bloomberg, has predicted that the ruling coalition will continue its administration for the next five years – citing economic growth.
Last year, Malaysia’s economy expanded 5.9 per cent and through data analysis, Bloomberg notes how the country is now seen as the best growth story among emerging Southeast Asian markets, which also explains the growing number of investors – as they love continuity.
“Year-to-date, foreign investors bought a net $635 million of the country's shares, while pulling money out of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index has outperformed its peers with an 8 percent rally this year in dollar terms.
“It's a sharp turnaround from a year and a half ago. Back then, investors fled after Bank Negara Malaysia asked foreign lenders to stop "speculative and damaging" trading in the offshore ringgit forwards market,” according to Bloomberg.
The report highlighted that Malaysia has fast growth and low inflation, unlike the Philippines, where price pressures are increasing, and private investment has also risen to 26 per cent of Malaysia's GDP in 2016 from 23.4 percent in 2010 in contrast to Thailand's ratio which has been slipping.
While former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will want to review Chinese investment should he win back power in the upcoming election – which investors are unhappy about, the report cited Najib’s close ties with Beijing plays an integral part of this economic growth.
China contributed seven per cent of the total 54.7 billion ringgit received last year, making it Malaysia’s top source of foreign direct investment.
“They probably think Tun M and gang are crazy to disassociate itself with the fastest growing large economy when everyone else in the world wants to increase trade ties with China,” wrote political analyst Lim Sian See.
“For all the criticism against Najib, his government had delivered 10 years of growth without recession - successfully navigating the great global recession as well as the 80% drop in commodity prices,” Lim added.
Clearly stability rules and Najib’s economic policies have proven to be effective as the World Bank also projected that Malaysia will achieve high-income status as early as 2020, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has similarly supported this claim. So, will those full of hot air have something to say about this now?
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