THE government’s economic stimulus packages are inclusive with the primary aim of improving the quality of health services in dealing with Covid-19 crisis, easing the burden of the people, assisting businesses and restoring the country’s economy, the Finance Ministry said.

Deputy Finance Minister I Abd Rahim Bakri said the government had taken immediate and proactive steps by implementing the packages – the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (Prihatin), Prihatin SME+, the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) and Prihatin Supplementary Initiative Package (Kita Prihatin) totalling RM305 billion.

“The implementation of these packages is expected to contribute around four percentage points to gross domestic product growth,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to a question from Salahuddin Ayub (Pulai-PH) on the implementation of the inclusive domestic packages to help the country overcome the challenging economic environment throughout 2020.

Rahim said the government had also provided a six-month loan moratorium facility by banking institutions and government agencies amounting to RM100 billion to individual and business borrowers, and provided a Prihatin Special Grant to micro small and medium enterprises totalling RM1.6 billion to almost 545,000 recipients to cover the affected businesses’ cash flow needs.

“The government has also reduced the overnight policy rate by 125 basis points from January 2020 to 1.75% to increase consumption and investment activities, and cut the Statutory Reserve Requirement ratio to 2% from 3% to increase liquidity in the financial system and encourage lending activities,” he added. – Bernama, November 4, 2020.