This is despite the challenging global economic conditions in recent years, said Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“We should be proud of this achievement as many countries in the region, as well as other nations in the world, have not been able to post such growth.
“In fact, in 2015, Malaysia was among the top performing Asean nations,” he said at the launch of the National Transformation Programme (NTP) 2015 Report here today.
In his speech, Najib outlined five major indicators for the NTP’s success, in the 70 months beginning with Budget 2010, in putting Malaysia’s economy on the right and resilient trajectory.
For the first indicator the GDP, which shows the relative health of a nation’s economy — Malaysia’s average 5.6% annual growth shows the nation’s economy is in a healthy state and capable of pushing the country towards developed nation status with the existing momentum, he said.
The second indicator, he said, is fiscal discipline, or the ability of a government to manage the nation’s financial situation, including debt management.
Najib said the government has been able to reduce the fiscal deficit from 6.7% in 2009 to 3.2% in 2015, while the target for this year is 3.1%.
“When a country like Malaysia has good fiscal discipline, our borrowing costs are low. But more importantly, the market confidence will continue to be at a high level, related to Malaysia’s credit situation.”
The third indicator, gross national income per capita, refers to the nation’s cumulative earnings from, among others, salaries, company profits and private investments.
“The gross national income per capita rose about 30% from RM28,000 in 2010 to over RM36,000 in 2015.”
The fourth indicator, he noted, is a trade surplus for 220 consecutive months, with Malaysia’s export value exceeding import value since November 1997.
The prime minister said as a small nation with a free market economy, Malaysia has shown its resilience, recording a trade surplus of RM7.5 billion in February 2016.
The fifth indicator is the higher ratings on Malaysia by international rating bodies and agencies compared to 2010, he said.
“For example, in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report, we improved to 18th spot in 2015 from 21st in 2010.
“In the ‘Global Competitiveness Report’ by the World Economic Forum, we were at 26th position in 2010, but through government’s efforts, Malaysia improved to 18th spot in 2015,” said Najib.
Malaysia is also ranked ninth and the only emerging market to be in the top 10 for Financial Market Development in the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Ranking 2015-2016, he noted.
He stressed that these facts and numbers, which have been validated, acknowledged and recognised by credible rating agencies, cannot be easily dismissed.
“This is the problem. How is it that some people can accuse and claim that the nation will be bankrupt and make wild predictions that the ringgit would fall to 4.8 against the US dollar, when the ringgit has started to strengthen?”
Najib noted that the ringgit reached its highest level on April 12, 2016 at 3.865 against the US dollar or a 11% improvement since end-2015, making it the best performing Asian currency in 2016.
As of April 22, 2016, shares on Bursa Malaysia, worth RM6.4 billion, were sold to foreign investors, he added.
On April 20, 2016, the government issued global sukuk worth USD$1.5 billion, with transactions oversubscribed 4.2 times, said the prime minister.
– BERNAMA