The Malaysian economy is on track for 4.5-5 percent expansion thisyear as domestic demand holds up and exports recover, according toGovernor Zeti Akhtar Aziz of Bank Negara, Malaysia ’s centralbank.
The country’s latest numbers for exports haveturned around to become positive so if that trend continues it will beat the higher end, Zeti said in a recent interview granted to Bloombergnews, adding she expects that next year’s economic growth will be animprovement from 2013.
Malaysia , Southeast Asia ’sthird largest economy, posted an average 6 percent growth in the threeyears through 2012, aided by domestic demand and investment.
As the country now joins Asian emerging markets from Indonesia to China in facing slower growth, Zeti said.
The governor stated that in 2013, global trade slowed down verysignificantly, and of course, that affected Malaysia because of theopenness of the economy. “But had we not rebalanced our economy, wewould have had 1 to 2 percent growth,” she added.
According to Zeti, the Malaysian central bank held its benchmarkinterest rate at 3 percent for 14 consecutive meetings until September5 to support economic growth. The rate is now considered as a suitablefigure to the economic growth of the country.
Zeti saidin the next six months, the bank will focus mostly on growth rather thaninflation , as global growth will remain subdued. Inflation isstable, she said, as demand is on a steady growth path and Malaysiahas significant expansion of capacity.-VNA