KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — The country remains on track to achieve between four and five per cent growth this year, even as Malaysia marked a slowdown in expansion over the third quarter, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said today.
BNM governor Tan Sri Zeti Akthar Aziz said Malaysia registered 4.7 per cent growth in the third quarter, down from 4.9 per cent in the previous quarter and this year's high of 5.6 per cent over the first three months of 2015.
“The risks have increased, but at this point of time we believe the economy is on track for 4 to 5 per cent growth,” she said at a news conference here.
“For the first three quarters, we are already at five per cent growth,” she added. “We are at the stronger end of the spectrum.”
Zeti said emerging markets including Malaysia continue to be affected by uncertainties tied to major economies, as well as by the persistent slump in global commodity prices.
She said “certain uncertainties and tension” in Malaysian politics would also have some effect on the economy, but stressed that it is external factors that exert far more influence on the country's economic predicament.
Headline inflation has also gone up to 3 per cent in the third quarter, up from the second quarter figure of 2.2 per cent, and is expected to remain elevated going into early 2016, Zeti added.
“Prices will continue to rise going into the first quarter of 2016. It could even hit four to five per cent, but it will moderate from there,” she said.
Zeti repeated BNM's position that Malaysia's strong domestic fundamentals and existing external buffers are sufficient to stave off any economic shocks, especially with support from diversified sources of growth and a sound financial system.
