Harun Rashid has got his 'analysis' and interpretation of 2Q 2001 GDP growth ('Are we in recession or not?' Dec 3 ) wrong when assessing whether an economy is in recession or not. Real or (in other words) GDP in constant ringgit is the standard and proper indicator to use.

Hence, Bank Negara Malaysia was correct in stating that Malaysia was growing annually or year-on-year by 0.5 percent in 2Q 2001, but contracted by 1.3 percent in 3Q 2001. The numbers used by your writer referred to nominal GDP which really indicated that Malaysia, while producing more goods and services by volume in 2Q 2001, was experiencing falling average prices during the same period.

Whether you believe the official statistics is another matter entirely. Getting the analysis wrong is the issue here and this commonly occurs when the average pundit thinks he can be an economist without going through a basic but reasonably rigorous economics education.