Category: Malaysian economy and BNM
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Households Malaysia: Financial assets up RM97.9bil vs RM70.4bil up in debt
First, let’s talk about potentially a bad news. Malaysia’s household debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio increased to 89.1% in 2015. It was 87.9 percent as at end 2014. Read here: Household Debt Malaysia? Better In other words, the household debts in total is actually worsening. Want to know what some other countries are doing? Well, take a…
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Dear ASEAN, working together is the better way.
Within ASEAN, the two property markets which are considered open would be Malaysia and Singapore. However, many other ASEAN countries have started to ‘open up.’ The relaxations are still some distance away from what Malaysia or Singapore has but when it becomes more competitive and attractive, it would attract new investments into the region. I…
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Cutting jobs because of strong US$
First of all, I would favour a stronger Ringgit. I love travelling overseas and even around the region. I do not believe that investors would buy properties in Malaysia simply because of the falling Ringgit. There must be a more comprehensive reason including the liveability factors. Recently Ringgit has recovered a little compared to a…
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Low petrol prices and the property market, not easy.
A good friend forwarded to me the price for RON95 beginning 1st March 2016. The caption says, ‘great news keep coming.’ To be very honest, I love low petrol prices. However, low petrol prices also comes from low oil prices. Well, low oil prices is a big issue when about 20 percent of the country’s GDP…
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Malaysia in recession? Not in 2015.
Latest: Malaysia’s GDP growth for the whole of 2015 is 5 percent. We can read a report by our advanced neighbour about it here: Straits Times Malaysia GDP growth article We (Malaysia) slowed down in the final 2 quarters but continue to have big trade surpluses. On a weekly basis, there’s bound to be some ‘recession’…
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Ensure growth, maintain fiscal deficit target.
Under the recalibrated budget 2016, there were 11 measures to do two important things. Ensuring growth by encouraging it and maintaining the fiscal deficit goal of 3.1 percent for 2016. The new budget would be based on oil price staying at around US$30 – 35 per barrel. This is a big change from the previous…
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Increasing liquidity and maintaining rates
After Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) maintained the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) at 3.25 percent and reduced the Statutory Reserve Requirement from 4.00 to 3.5 percent, the market sort of turned positive. Well, according to Credit Suisse, BNM is ‘treading a thin line.’ It’s economist Michael Wan said said that if the market interest rate structure…
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Pressure to earnings and increasing NPLs
Is a financial crisis coming to Malaysia? Well, the first sign would have to come from the banks. Thus far, none of the banks in Malaysia are reporting losses. However, as per reported in many local media, the earnings of banks are down versus the years after the 2008 financial crisis (US Mortgage crisis). Major…
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IMF’s Lagarde: 2016 will be “disappointing”
Do I believe the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF)? Well, let’s just say I will believe what I want to believe from what I read. Okay, reported in many media from an article in Reuters, IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde said that the rising interest rates in United States and economic slowdown in China were contributing to…