Prominent component party of Malaysia’s ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, said in a statement issued on Saturday (17 Dec) that Malaysia’s economy is more stable than Singapore’s. The statement said that although Singapore had always done better in gross domestic product growth, this trend has now changed.
The statement credited Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s deliberate efforts being the “reason why Malaysia has been more resilient post-2009.”
The statement highlighted the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) and said that it was instrumental in helping Malaysia to not to be overly-dependent on world commodity prices, international trade and on foreign investments as it was in the past. The rebalancing to the domestic economy was deliberate, the statement said.
It added that among efforts taken in the ETP was to reduce reliance on petroleum-related income. This it said is the reason why the slump in oil prices did not affect Malaysia as much as it did the oil hub of Asia, Singapore.
“The Malaysian government’s reliance on petroleum-related income has dropped from more than 41.3% in 2009 to 14% now, a remarkable achievement,” it said.
It added that the move by the government to redistribute income and development to rural economies had also increased domestic demand.