Malaysia’s debt increased under Pakatan, says Najib

Ragananthini Vethasalam Chan Kok Leong Ragananthini Vethasalam, Chan Kok Leong Updated 5 years ago · Published on 16 Jul 2020 5:16PM · 4 Comments

Former prime minister Najib Razak says the country's debt had increased under Pakatan's governance. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, July 16, 2020.

NAJIB Razak has accused the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) government of taking the national debt level closer to the statutory limit of 55% of the gross domestic product (GDP).

He said this has limited the current Perikatan Nasional (PN) government’s fiscal space to borrow to tackle the Covid-19 crisis.

The Pekan MP said the country’s liabilities jumped from RM686.8 billion at the end of 2017 when Barisan Nasional was in power to RM823.8 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2020.

This does not take into account the proceeds from assets divestment and the money taken from Petronas’ coffers, the former prime minister said while debating the royal address in Dewan Rakyat today.

He also said government guarantees rose from RM238 billion to RM280.4 billion in the same period.

Najib added that the country under his leadership had managed to pare down the fiscal deficit for eight consecutive years.

“When I was leading the government, the government had successfully pared down the fiscal deficit every year for eight years in a row,” he said.

“Besides implementing the GST, we also reduced the dependence on oil revenue from 44% to 12.2% by the end of 2017.”

However, he claimed that the country’s dependence to oil revenue has increased to 33% after PH took over.

“When PH took over, the country’s deficit increased every year and the dependence on oil revenue also increased to 33%,” he said.

“As a result, the debt to GDP ratio, which was reduced by the BN government to 48.7% in the first quarter of 2018, before GE14, has U-turned to increase to 54.4% at the end of the first quarter of 2020,” he added.

He said in the 22 months PH was in power, the debt-to-GDP ratio increased by almost 6%, leaving PN with 0.6% fiscal space to face the Covid-19 crisis.

On that note, he suggested that the PN government move an immediate motion to revise the statutory limit of debt to a higher number.

This, he said, will help the government tackle the crisis without having to sell the country’s assets at a time where the market conditions are not feasible. – July 16, 2020.

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Comments

  • U still believe him? Pls go to the toilet and flush your head.

    Posted 5 years ago by James Wong · Reply

  • Why 1MDB debt not mentioned by Najib?

    Posted 5 years ago by S Shaf · Reply

  • This sucker has sucks up tax payers fund and enjoys lives like nobody business and sleeps at his desk while in office got the chicks to say this. A Malaysian who has a face as tick as the China Great Wall who has no shame what so ever in him.

    Posted 5 years ago by Teruna Kelana · Reply

  • Don't talk much laa Najib. If I were you I'd worry about RM berkins n jewellery. How to get them back. Maybe your polishers can help eg. Shafie, Saleh Syed K. Nazri, Jamal, where are they now I wonder

    Posted 5 years ago by Zainuddin Yusoff · Reply