GEORGE TOWN, Oct 18 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today accused Gerakan of using outdated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures in its criticisms against the state government.

The Penang lawmaker, who cited figures sourced from the Department of Statistics Malaysia, said Penang Gerakan had used old forecast figures of the state's GDP to compare with the national GDP for 2014 and 2015.

“In 2014, Penang’s GDP was higher than the national GDP as Penang recorded 8 per cent GDP while national recorded 6 per cent,” he told reporters in a press conference at his office today.

He added that even for last year, though the state’s GDP dropped to 5.5 per cent, it was still higher than the national GDP of 5 per cent.

Lim was responding to Penang Gerakan chairman Teng Chang Yeow who accused Lim of confusing the people about the state’s GDP.

Teng had used a diagram of GDP annual growth rate in Malaysia and Penang between 2006 and 2015, in which the 2014 and 2015 figures were forecast figures.

He claimed that Penang performed better than national average GDP growth most of the times when under the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration but that when Pakatan Harapan took over, it performed lower than the national average growth since 2011.

He said between 2006 and 2007, Penang was ranked 11th highest in the country in terms of its GDP per capita, but the state dropped to 15th, the bottom of the list, during Pakatan Rakyat’s administration between 2008 and 2014.

Lim today rebutted Teng’s criticisms by insisting that Penang was the third highest nationally in growth rate per capita GDP for 2012 and 2013.

The state was second for 2013 and 2014, and it became “national champions” for 2014 and 2015, he said.

The state's GDP per capita growth between 2012 and 2013 was 3.9 per cent, 9.5 per cent between 2013 and 2014 and 6.4 per cent between 2014 and 2015, topping the list.

“I have verified these figures with Penang Institute CEO Dr Lim Kim Hwa who has a doctorate in economics from Cambridge University. Dr Lim confirms that Penang went from bottom state in 2007 to national champion in 2015,” he said.

“Or is the Penang BN chairman Teng Chang Yeow, with no degree in economics, better than Dr Lim?” he asked.

He told BN to stop “dishonest Donald Trump-like behaviour” by disputing and distorting its own federal government statistics.