This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 12, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: A proposed stimulus package to boost the local economy — especially for the aviation, retailing and tourism sectors following the Wuhan virus outbreak — will be announced at end-February or early March, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

This follows a three-hour meeting chaired by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Monday with local industry players to gather input on the virus’ impact. Further meetings with local businesses would also be held.

“We have to get input from everyone,” Guan Eng said concerning the economic stimulus package after announcing the mySalam scheme expansion yesterday, Bernama reported.

Earlier, Guan Eng said his ministry would determine the estimated duration of the virus outbreak to ascertain the economic stimulus package’s amount.

Meanwhile, the economic affairs ministry was quoted as saying in a report yesterday that focus areas of the stimulus package include initiatives to encourage domestic spending and tourism to generate growth through higher local demand.

Another aspect, it said, would be to help industry tackle businesses’ cash flow issues. “Announcements on this stimulus package will be made in the near future,” Reuters cited the ministry as saying.

Bank Negara Malaysia is scheduled to release the country’s fourth-quarter gross domestic product figures today, with the economy seen to have slowed to its weakest since mid-2016 on feeble private consumption and external demand.

Dr Mahathir, on Monday, said the government is expecting the economy to expand 4.8% for 2020, better than the 4.7% growth projected for 2019, “despite challenging times”.