Posted in Economics on May 22nd, 2013 No Comments »
The soon-to-be Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department overseeing the Economic Planning Unit Abdul Wahid Omar commented on the 1Q real GDP growth earlier this week. He said: “The gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the first quarter was a bit slow, but that’s reflective of the economic activities which are typically slower (in this [...]
Posted in Economics on May 15th, 2013 No Comments »
The GDP growth for the first quarter in 2013 is bad. The economy in the period grew by only 4.1% from a year ago, which is a marked slowdown from 6.5% year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter. Despite the high 6.5% growth, the fourth quarter GDP figures were problematic. An anomaly pushed the growth in [...]
Posted in Economics, WDYT on May 13th, 2013 No Comments »
So, trade surplus in the first quarter of 2013 very much contracted. Net exports in current prices were down by 44%. Although imports fared considerably better than exports in the quarter (hence the big drop in trade surplus), imports of consumption goods were weak, which may suggest that consumption itself slowed. Another bad news is [...]
Posted in Economics on May 8th, 2013 1 Comment »
Managing imbalances and rising indebtedness under a low interest rate environment Very low interest rates have now prevailed for a number of years and appear to be likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Given the duration of the easing period, a key question is whether monetary policy can still be considered as being counter-cyclical [...]
Posted in Economics, Politics & government on May 1st, 2013 No Comments »
I am curious at some of the projected fiscal deficit figures which have come out from the internet. A number of them are fanciful. One that I have read has the deficit under Pakatan Rakyat manifesto rising to close to 12% of nominal GDP while BN would be as low as 4%. The 4% figure [...]
Posted in Economics on April 30th, 2013 1 Comment »
Here is an interesting paragraph which describes how a cut in government debt can lead to lower borrowing cost in the economy: A decrease in the supply of government debt has forced some money fund managers and cash investors to scramble for alternatives. Higher demand for commercial paper, repurchase agreements and other short-term private debt [...]
Posted in Economics, Politics & government on April 23rd, 2013 2 Comments »
Democracy by far is the most respectable way a society can govern itself. That, however, does not mean that democracy has no weaknesses at all. As Winston Churchill is often quoted, “democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” It is the best that we have after thousands [...]
Posted in Economics on April 18th, 2013 2 Comments »
The CPI for March was released yesterday. Malaysia’s consumer price index grew by approximately 1.6% from a year ago. It is slightly higher than the inflation rate recorded in February, which was at about 1.5% from a year ago. You can see which components contributed to the higher inflation, as well as the price behavior [...]
Posted in Economics on April 15th, 2013 No Comments »
Europe was uncontested center of the world during the periods leading up to the 20th century. It was the fountainhead of human civilization. Their progress allowed them to become the foremost colonial powers of the world. The British Empire itself was so vast that as the saying goes, the sun never sets on it. European achievements created [...]
Posted in Economics, Politics & government on April 11th, 2013 No Comments »
Some parts of the economy enjoy stable growth rates in normal times. Consumption and government spending are two of the GDP components which grow in a stable manner, unless there is a recession. As much as ridiculous as it may sound (yeah, that is the libertarian in me speaking out), the government does plan its [...]
The name is Hafiz Noor Shams.
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