Malaysia: a year of economic and political reversals
Special Author: Quah Boon Huat, MIER, Malaysia
The economy in reverse
The Malaysian economy was not spared any damage in 2008, a year that will be remembered as a period of turbulence, when a deadly cocktail of bad US sub-prime loans, the financial-liquidity crisis, high commodity prices and soaring inflation buffeted the global economy.
Against a backdrop of quarter-by-quarter falls in the country’s economic growth rate, 2008 was more about rare economic highlights than milestones.