Economic Views

Tapping into young minds

The employability of local graduates has always been a contentious issue in Malaysia. The fact that many of them are finding it hard to secure permanent jobs raises important questions: what can be effectively done to entice employers to hire them? What can these graduates do to send proper signals to the market about their …

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Deciphering the Chinese Conundrum

There has been overwhelming concern over China’s economy in recent times. This can’t be helped, given that the world’s second largest economy has been an important global growth contributor in the past several years. As a percentage of global growth, China contributed roughly 25%-30% in the past few years. Its dominance in the global economy …

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How Bumpy Will 2019 Be?

If you were a medical doctor who is trying to diagnose the health condition of a patient named ‘Global Economy’, you will frown when looking at his medical report. First, his body temperature is above normal. A couple of paracetamols every six hours would do, you might think. His blood pressure is also on the …

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Trouble ahead with cheaper oil?

With Brent crude oil prices dipping below USD60 per barrel in late-November, concerns over the possible impact of this phenomenon on the Malaysian economy have naturally emerged. For one thing, Malaysia’s economic performance has always been closely tied to crude oil price trends. Plunging prices in mid-2014 and in 2015 had caused growth to soften …

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Going Beyond Statistics

As the government explained prior to tabling Budget 2019, this is not an ordinary Budget. Budget 2019 is meant to put Malaysia on a clean slate and move forward by removing some imbalances and excesses and strengthen the fundamentals of the economy.   As such, we can label it as ‘the new beginning’ for Malaysia’s …

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Gauging consumer and business optimism

Malaysia’s second-quarter economic growth somewhat surprised many. Save for economists who have looked at leading indicators during the period, laymen might not have foreseen the rebound in economic activity during the quarter. Hence, the 4.9% expansion that topped the preceding quarter’s 4.5% growth came as a surprise. Where did the growth come from? This is …

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