The Performance Management and Delivery Unit’s chief executive officer, Idris Jala, said top government officials and economic experts have given their assurances that the Malaysian economy is not in crisis.

Idris said, however, they believed that the country’s economy was facing uncertainties as a result of external and internal challenges.

“We acknowledge factors affecting sentiments and realistically we are heading for some tough times.

“Regardless, we also see long-term, credible investors to continue to place their trust in Malaysia as a competitive market committed to sustainable economic growth.

“We are not in any way in the Malaysia of 1998 during the Asian financial crisis,” he said at the Economic Update 2015 in Kuala Lumpur today.

Idris said the government was cognisant of concerns around 1MDB and political funding that has led to some political risks affecting the businesses environment.

“But as a nation, we are a resilient lot. We will get past this as the administration is committed to its efforts in positioning Malaysia as a top investment and trade destination in Asia,” he said.

He said Malaysia was still on track to become a high-income economy by 2020 despite the currency challenges.

“The strengthening of the US dollar has negatively impacted 120 currencies, even though they don't have 1MDB and RM2.6 billion issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said the economy did not face crisis of confidence because people would always tend to look at long term.

“Between the short- and long-term views on economy, there are always ups and downs and there are some challenges of course, but we have to move on.

“On issues like 1MDB, we have to put a closure. We need to put all these behind us as soon as we can.

“The government recognises these problems and we are looking to put a closure to this subject,” he said.

- Bernama