FINANCE Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz should be transparent, honest and realistic about Malaysia’s economic performance, said PKR Youth chief Akmal Nasir.

He also reminded the former banker to refrain from resorting to “political ruse” to boost the image of the Perikatan Nasional government by confusing and deceiving the people.

Akmal’s comments come in the wake of Malaysia’s full-year gross domestic product (GDP) performance that was announced on February 11.

Malaysia recorded its worst performance since 1998, after the economy contracted by 5.6% in 2020.

In 1998, the country’s GDP contracted by 7.4% as it reeled from the impacts of the Asian Financial Crisis.

Commenting on this, Akmal said the development is worrying as it appears to be more severe than the government’s projection. 

“The GDP contraction is more than the Finance Minister’s projection in the Economic Outlook Report 2021 in which the projection was for the GDP to contract by -4.5%, although at that time the  Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC) expected a wider contraction of about -5.7%,” the Johor Bahru MP said in a statement.

“This has indirectly raised questions on how transparent and accurate the government is in its reporting on the current economic conditions.

“It is contradictory, when the government releases statements that people has nothing to worry about and the economy is on track for recovery when its own projection is far from reality,” Akmal added.

Citing the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Investment Trends Monitor report on foreign direct investment (FDI) and the downgrade of Malaysia’s sovereign credit ratings by Fitch Ratings, Akmal said the country’s debt is likely to increase.

This, coupled with the 2020 GDP contraction, will not yield high growth in 2021, he said.

According to UNCTAD, Malaysia’s FDI last year declined by 68% compared to 2019 to just US$2.5 billion (RM10.1 billion).

However, Department of Statistics Malaysia data showed that the total gross FDI inflow into Malaysia from January to September 2020 was valued at RM108.2 billion, 5.8% higher than the RM102.3 billion in the same period in 2019. – February 14, 2021.