PRIME Minster Najib Razak has tabled a RM280.2 billion budget for 2018, an increase of 5.4% compared with 2017, the last before his administration seeks a fresh mandate.

Najib, who also holds the finance minister portfolio, said the bulk of this amount, or RM234.2 billion (83.6%), will go to operating expenses, such as paying civil servants’ salaries (RM79.1 billion) and servicing debts (RM61.3 billion).

The remaining RM46 billion, or 16.4% of the budget, will go towards development expenditure for government programmes and projects, said Najib.

“We have also set aside an emergency fund of RM2 billion.”

Under development expenditure, 57.3% will go to programmes for the economic sector, 25.5% for social, 11.3% for security and 5.9% for general administration.

The economic sector will get the biggest sum of the development allocation, with RM26.3 billion to be spent mostly on developing public infrastructure and transport networks.

In the social sector, Najib said RM 11.7 billion, or 25.5%, will be spent mainly on education, health, housing and welfare services.

Najib said the 2018 Budget’s pro-growth and rakyat-centric programmes were expected to help the economy expand between 5% and 5.5%.

This comes off the back of the between 5.2% and 5.7% growth expected in 2017, which was mainly supported by firm domestic demand and a steady exports.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to strengthen between 5.2% and 5.7% compared with 4.2% in 2016.

For more, follow the live feed here. – October 27, 2017.