PRIME Minister Najib Razak has reiterated that the federal government’s debt is not at a critical level, as claimed by certain quarters.

Najib, on his blog, said as of June last year, debt was recorded at 50.9% of the country’s gross domestic product, which was lower than the 55% level set by the government.

“This proves that the government’s debt is still manageable, and also lower than the 53.2% as of end-June 2016. This is something we should be proud of.

“At the same time, the ratio of government debt to Malaysia’s GDP is very much better compared with other developed countries, such as Singapore (112%), the UK (89.3%) and Canada (92.3%).”

He denied allegations that the country was going bankrupt due to the federal government’s debt, saying international bodies, such as the World Bank, had increased the growth projection for last year’s GDP from 4.9% to 5.2%.

He said it did not make sense to say the nation was going bankrupt when many countries had shown an interest in investing in Malaysia and were looking at forming trade partnerships.

“Although the opposition is making slanderous allegations that Malaysia’s economy is about to crash, just to gain power, the government is always seeking avenues to strengthen and place it on a par with major global economic powers.” – Bernama, January 5, 2018.