Author: Foong Kee Kuan, MIER

In Malaysia the doom and gloom of the global financial crisis was pervasive at the start of this year, but gradually gave way to increasing optimism following the leadership change in April. Currently, various economic indicators forecast continued improvement for Malaysia, albeit subject to occasional pullbacks, and this economic progress is due to the efforts of the Malaysian government’s introduction of policies aimed to stabilise the economy.

Economic activity rebounded in the second quarter of 2009, after bottoming out in the first quarter, with stabilising domestic and external conditions leading to further improvement in the third quarter. Sentiments among businesses and consumers also recovered, leading to more private investment and consumption along the way, with the rate of decline in inflation also slowing in October.

The Malaysia government’s response to the global downturn has been to introduce a raft of national stabilisation measures, to varying degrees of effectiveness. Read more…