KUALA LUMPUR(July 24): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its gross domestic product (GDP) growth for Malaysia in 2017 to 4.8%, driven by favourable economic data from the country that has been coming through this year.

IMF economic counsellor and director of its research department Maurice Obstfeld said that the IMF had revised upwards its forecasts for Malaysia from its earlier forecast of 4.5% in its April 2017 World Economic Outlook (WEO).

“Steady-handed monetary policy and successful efforts to increase the sustainability of debt[levels] , which has been trending downward were among the reasons[for the upgrade]..if anything, there are upside risks,

“We are optimistic here in Malaysia,” he told a news conference in conjuction with the IMF’s update of its WEO April 2017 projections.

The IMF has also  kept its projections for global growth at 3.5% for 2017 and 3.6% in 2018 in its July 2017 WEO update ,unchanged from its April 2017 WEO projections.

In its WEO update-July 2017  report released today, the IMF said that the unchanged global growth projections mask somewhat different contributions at the country level.

For example,the IMF had projected a slower 2017 growth for the US economy of 2.1%, from an earlier projection of 2.3% in April, and had  forecasted 2018 growth for the US to also come in at 2.1%, from a previous estimate of 2.5%.

“US growth projections are lower than in April, primarily reflecting the assumption that fiscal policy will be less expansionary going forward than previously anticipated,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the IMF had revised upwards its 2017 growth projection for Japan to 1.3%, from its April estimate of 1.2%, and had revised China’s 2017 growth to 6.7% from 6.6% in April.

 “China’s growth projections have also been revised up, reflecting a strong first quarter of 2017 and expectations of continued fiscal support,” the report said.