FORMER finance minister Lim Guan Eng today asked if Putrajaya had prepared policies to deal with labour shortages and rising prices.

He also asked what the government intended to do with the people have used up their special EPF withdrawals of RM10,000.

Accusing Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob of lacking a real policy for sustainable economic growth, Lim said allowing early withdrawal of retirement savings was a short-term measure, even if it had pumped RM40 billion into the economy.

“It creates an illusory feel-good factor that addresses the urgent financial needs of the public that has not enough money to spend and manage rising food prices,” he said in a statement today.

Lim asked if the government had a plan to overcome acute labour shortages.

“The announcement by Bank Negara to increase the overnight policy rate (OPR) by another 25 basis points (bps) to 2% indicates that inflation and rising prices will be a bigger economic challenge than sustaining robust economic recovery,” he said.

Lim said sustainable economic growth for 2022 could be impeded by a weak ringgit and structural problems relating to acute worker shortage in key sectors of the economy as well as a lack of institutional reforms that promote transparency and accountability.

“The impact of a weak ringgit, (which has dipped) to historic lows against the Singapore dollar, is unexpected with rising global prices in oil and basic commodities such as oil palm.

“At the same time, economic growth is spotty with many key sectors such as tourism, hotel, entertainment and recreation as well as SMEs still struggling to survive to reach the 2019 level.”

Lim said soaring prices were not mitigated by rising wages.

He said the government needed to offer assistance to the key sectors and “quickly overcome severe labour shortfalls as well as address the impact of rising prices caused by supply shortages as well as the weakening ringgit”.

He regretted that the government had refused to listen to economic suggestions from the opposition. – May 12, 2022.