KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said today the government will continue to prioritise economic growth and even consider an expansionary budget to ensure the people's economic well-being and achieve Malaysia's economic goal of shared prosperity.
Lim said in a statement today that emphasising sustainable economic growth can ensure the success of shared prosperity following receding fears of deflation after Malaysia's inflation in June 2019 stood at 1.5% year-on-year compared to 0.2% in May 2019.
"The generally low and stable inflation is taking place amid a robust economic growth. Malaysian industrial production growth has been growing above market consensus for the third month in a row when in May 2019, it grew 4.0% year-on-year beating market projection of 3.5% year-on-year as compiled by Bloomberg. Exports in May 2019 increased 2.5% year-on-year, which also came above market expectations.
"Wholesale and retail sales rose 5.6% and 8.2% year-on-year respectively in the January-May 2019 period. Furthermore, vehicle sales for the first 5 months of 2019 rose 13% compared to the same period last year, indicating healthy domestic demand growth for the first half of the year," he said.
Lim said these indicators point towards healthy GDP expansion in the second quarter of 2019 after the Malaysian economy grew 4.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019.
"The government is positive about the prospects for sustainable economic growth for the second quarter," he said.