KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expressed confidence that Malaysia can become a high-income nation soon if all its initiatives, including that of the 11th Malaysian Plan (11MP), are carried out as planned.
IMF mission chief for Malaysia Nada Choueiri noted the country’s strong economic performance and growth, attributing it to 11MP that charts a path towards a greater economy status between 2016 and 2020.
“The plan has six strategic pillars that touch on a range of development issues ― including equity, inclusiveness, environmental sustainability, human capital development, and infrastructure,” she was reported as saying in an interview with IMF Country Focus.
These, Choueiri said, will emphasise on improving the labour market outcomes such as increasing labour’s share of income; increase female labour participation in the labour market; as well as improve the education quality while matching skills to the relevant industry.
“If the female labour force participation rate had not changed since 2012, real GDP would have been about one per cent lower in 2016 compared with what it actually was that year,” Choueiri said on the importance of having a stronger labour market with more women representation.
In the past three years, she pointed that Putrajaya’s deficit had reduced from 3.4 per cent to three per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017 through expenditure cuts.
This, she said, had resulted in a lower debt for the country.
“Looking ahead, our advice to the authorities is to maintain gradual fiscal consolidation but, at the same time, also continue to increase revenue to protect social and development spending,” she said.
As for 2018, Choueiri said IMF’s anticipates a growth of 5.3 per cent for this year.
In January, Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) forecasted the country to grow 5.4 per cent year-on-year in 2018.
