KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — Deputy Finance minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani said today that Malaysia’s improved ranking on the Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 indicates the country is functioning on a strong financial system although he cautioned that this is not the time for complacency.

“We cannot just begin to be incautious simply because we have something good,” he said after launching the Ikon PLC Bumiputera 2014-2015 book here today.

Malaysia was ranked at 18th spot in the Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016, which was released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) this morning.

Last year, Malaysia was ranked 20th out of 144 countries.

“The ranking shows that our country’s financial system and inter-ministerial procedures are quite efficient, or else we wouldn’t see an improvement in ranking. So with all this good systems in place, we need to protect it,” Johari added.

According to the report, Malaysia is the most competitive economy among 20 economies in the transition stage from an efficient-driven to innovation-driven economy.

Malaysia also remains the highest ranked among developing Asian countries.

This comes as the ringgit continues to drop to its lowest since the 1998 Asian financial crisis and a widening political scandal affecting investor sentiment.