KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 5): Economic data such as the monthly Nikkei Malaysia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) should not be considered as a reflection of the entire economy for the whole year, says Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng. 

"We should not lose focus over short-term fluctuations, especially when the overall economic situation is more accurately depicted by longer-term trends," he said in a statement today.

"I would like to stress that the domestic banking system continues to have sufficient liquidity while the monetary system is healthy and stable.

"The government will continue to help grow the economy sustainably to benefit the rakyat," he added.

"Figures such as the PMI for December 2018 falling to a low of 46.8 points, while relevant to that particular month, should not be considered as a reflection of the entire economy for the whole year," said Guan Eng.

"PMI figures may go up in later months, just like the sterling trade performance in the month of October 2018," he added.

Guan Eng pointed to longer-term figures such as approved manufacturing foreign direct investment (FDI) for the first nine months of 2018, which rose 250% year-on-year to RM49 billion, as a more accurate gauge.

"These investments will be realised in the future to create high-quality jobs for Malaysians.

"Additionally, Malaysia’s stock market was the second best performer in Asia-Pacific in 2018," he said.

Guan Eng also noted that the country's inflation averaged only 1% y-o-y for the first 11 months of 2018, helped by the removal of the goods and services tax and replaced by the sales and service tax.

"Inflation will remain favourable to consumers in the near future due to low energy prices," he said.

"The ringgit has improved to 4.14 to the US dollar today, from 4.20 in November 2018 when it was at its weakest.

"Finally, Malaysia still has a sizable current account surplus of RM22.7 billion or 2.5% of gross domestic product as of end September 2018, with the positive current account balance expected to persist this year as well.

"This is partly the reason why Malaysia’s international credit ratings have been maintained, and the reason Bloomberg placed Malaysia as the best among 20 emerging markets for investment," he said.

The finance minister was commenting on an old October 2018 article citing Nikkei reports that has been viralled online, saying that it was "to give the misleading perception that the economy is currently recording negative statistics that are bad for the Malaysian economy".

The two-month-old article uses August trade statistics, specifically stating that the 2018 August trade surplus figure of only RM1.6 billion was the lowest in 45 months.

"However, giving a monthly snapshot is not accurate because it does not correspond with Malaysia’s performance over the whole year," said Guan Eng.