Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (March 11): Outgoing Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said she has submitted the central bank's recommendation on her potential successor to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Zeti also said she and BNM representatives met Najib yesterday for a two-hour meeting that was spent mostly talking about the current economic conditions and policies.

"A good hour and a half was presented by myself on our assessment on monetary policy, and how we can deal with our resilience for the future," she told reporters at the sidelines of Wharton Global Forum Kuala Lumpur 2016.

According to her, the economic malaise infecting Malaysia today, mostly stemmed from the decline in commodity prices. Had the country not undertaken reforms — like the conversion of the tax regime to the goods and services tax — Malaysia would have been in a far worse situation.

"The factors affecting the economy are transitional factors. This is a period of adjustment that we will go through for one or two years (more), and then we will be able to resume our growth," Zeti said, before adding that Malaysia's economy has the underlying foundation.

Malaysia's gross domestic product grew by 5% last year, lower than the 6% increase enjoyed in 2014. The government has set a revised growth rate of between 4% and 4.5% in 2016.

On her potential successor, Zeti declined to identify the names on the list submitted to the prime minister. She also did not say what was Najib's reaction to the central bank's list.

Zeti is set to retire from her 16-year tenure as BNM governor, when her term lapses on April 30.

Previously, she has said BNM had internal candidates in mind to propose as the new governor.

Media reports have mentioned current deputy governors Datuk Mohamed Ibrahim and Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, as among the candidates.

Others potential candidates cited include Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, Malaysian Ambassador to the United States Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin, and Treasury Secretary-General Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah.

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