Author name: WebMaster

Posted Date: October 27, 2021 On August 31, 2021, the government unveiled its maiden Pre-Budget Statement (PBS) aimed at offering greater fiscal formulation transparency. In the document, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) noted that Budget 2022 would comprise the following themes: i) protecting lives and driving the recovery of livelihoods; ii) rebuilding economic resilience; and […]

Posted Date: October 12, 2021 After a year of delay, the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) was finally unveiled by the Prime Minister on September 27, 2021. The 532-page official document starts by taking stock of the Vision 2020 and 11MP achievements but falls short of weighing the rationale and costs of unmet targets. The lack

Posted Date: October 5, 2021 MARC has recently been awarded the Best Islamic Rating Agency of the Year 2021 at the 11th Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA). This is the sixth time in a row since 2016 that MARC has won this accolade, the most prestigious award for Islamic rating services. This repeated achievement shows

Posted Date: October 4, 2021 Foreign investors resumed their net buying activities in August after being net sellers in the previous two months. Foreign inflows into the local bond market in August amounted to RM6.6 billion, offsetting the outflows that occurred in June and July which amounted to RM4.1 billion. Foreign holdings amounted to RM250.4

Posted Date: September 13, 2021 In a Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) released on September 9, 2021, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) decided to hold the overnight policy rate (OPR) unchanged at 1.75%. This is in line with our expectations. The MPS signalled no imminent changes in the OPR, which has been at a record low since

Posted Date: September 1, 2021 In July, as the global pandemic crisis deepens, global government bonds including Malaysian Government Securities (MGS) have rallied. MGS performance mimicked the US Treasury market as investors flocked towards safe-haven assets. The rally was spurred by the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, amplifying expectations the US economic growth

Posted Date: August 20, 2021 As expected, Malaysia’s economy posted a sharp turnaround in 2Q2021 after four consecutive quarters of contraction. While it was the highest quarterly growth ever recorded, the performance did not offset the deep contraction in last year’s corresponding period. The economy shrank 3.9% compared to 2Q2019, so it still fell short

Posted Date: August 12, 2021 In 2Q2021, we envisage a sharp turnaround in Malaysia’s real GDP growth on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis to 13.2%, compared with -0.5% recorded in 1Q2021. Such promising performance will likely be Malaysia’s highest quarterly growth ever recorded. The double-digit growth primarily reflects a favourable base effect as the economy contracted

Posted Date: July 30, 2021 In June, foreign flows into the local bond market turned negative for the first time in 14 months. Foreign holdings of local bonds fell by RM0.5 billion to RM247.4 billion (May: RM247.9 billion), equivalent to 14.6% (May: 14.7%) of total outstanding local bonds. The outflows were mainly driven by the

Posted Date: July 29, 2021 MARC has published a policy paper titled “Lockdown without being locked in”, which consists of four parts: one, the alternative meaning of the Movement Control Order (MCO) 1.0; two, the projected economic costs due to MCO 3.0; three, two broad principles, namely reciprocal transaction and channel-variable, to improve the existing