I refer to Halfcentsworth letter Don't blame everything on megaprojects . It's one thing to print a letter that has a different view but its quite another to print a letter full of inaccuracies of facts.

The writer refer to multiplier effect of government spending which he implies can be 10 times the GDP. This is impossible. Multipliers of government spending, tax breaks and subsidies cannot be more than two times. Anything with multiplier effect of two times (2X) is highly profitable and will be pursued by profit-driven private enterprises.

The average multiplier effect of government spending is typically between 0.1 and 0.25X. In other words, a spending of RM100,000 by the government generally generates no more than another RM25,000 of economic activity. It is highly misleading to say government spending has a high benefit to anyone else other than the contractors.

On over-saving, it's true that over-saving can be unproductive but that depends on productivity of the economy. If an economy is highly productive, then over-saving leads to less productivity. If an economy is unproductive, a high savings rate leads to better efficiency of the allocation of capital.

Most developing economies are resource and input driven and less productive. Hence savings, rather than consumption, lead to better growth. The reason why the US economy is so stable despite its low savings rate is because of its high productivity. If its productivity should fall, the economy would be in trouble.

In general, this is a fine line to tread for any economy and it is not so simple. For Malaysia, where productivity is near zero, high savings is what has saved this economy from crisis after crisis.