MALAYSIA ECONOMY - SOFT LANDING

MALAYSIA-ECONOMY
ECONOMIST CONFIDENT MALAYSIA WILL HAVE SOFT LANDING
By Wan Nor Azura Bt Mior Abdul Aziz

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 (Bernama) -- An economist is confident that the
Malaysian economy will have a soft landing following various fiscal stimulus
initiatives introduced by the government to pump prime it, against the backdrop
of a global recession.

Many feel that the goverment should fast track spending in order to not
only prevent Malaysia from slipping into negative growth but also spur economic
expansion.

According to the group chief economist of RAM Holdings Berhad, Dr Yeah Kim
Leng, if the fiscal measures worked collectively, then all major sectors of the
economy would not go into a tail spin.

Yeah, however said, Malaysia was not headed for a recession with no sharp
decline in output.

On Friday, Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz had announced
that manufacturing dropped 1.8 percent due mainly to weaknesses in the
export-oriented industries.

Yeah told BERNAMA that the manufacturing sector would see much lower
growth next year.

"I think we can likely achieve four percent in the face of a moderate
growth global slowdown", he said.

Currently he said, the slowdown in Malaysia's manufacturing was partly
cyclical and partly structural in nature.

Although Malaysia ranked relatively high in manufacturing competitiveness
among the export-oriented emerging economies, its improvement appears to have
stagnated in recent years.

Yeah said that the most advanced economies such as the United States,
Japan and the EU countries had already slipped into a recession in the third and
fourth quarters of this year.--BERNAMA
WNA AS