'Moody's revision shows Najib put us through unnecessary suffering'

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Credit ratings agency Moody's revision of Malaysia's economic outlook from positive to stable shows that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had put Malaysians through unnecessary suffering, said a PKR lawmaker.

Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli said despite austere measures such as implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and abolishing subsidies, Najib had clearly failed to please credit-rating agencies.

"These anti-rakyat policies have caused the cost of living to spike, university students have to go hungry, the public has to work more than one job to deal with inflation, and other struggles.

"(However), this has failed to stop Moody's from downgrading Malaysia's economic prospect from positive to stable.

"This means Najib's decisions to gamble the people's welfare to ensure that the international ratings agencies don't give a negative outlook for Malaysia was for nothing," Rafizi said in a statement today.

'Positive' to 'stable'

Moody’s Investors Service today revised Malaysia’s sovereign outlook from ‘positive’ to ‘stable’ and affirmed the Malaysian government’s issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings at A3.

The first key driver of the outlook revision is the deterioration in Malaysia’s growth and external credit metrics due to external pressures over the past year.

Moody’s was also concerned over macro-financial risks posed by system-wide leverage, which remains high.

Moody’s also expects that despite progress on fiscal consolidation, Malaysia’s public debt burden and debt affordability will see only limited improvement over the outlook horizon.

Rafizi said the situation will only improve when the government tackles the 'cancers' killing the economy, that is corruption, weak governance, and lack of responsibility.

Related report

Moody’s changes M’sia’s sovereign outlook to ‘stable’



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