Penang tabled a total budget of RM1.45 billion for 2017, an increase of RM345 million, from RM1.105 billion in 2016.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng also announced a RM667.10 million deficit budget for 2017, an increase of RM374.97 million compared to last year’s deficit, which stood at RM292.13 million.

He tabled the budget today at the Penang State Legislative Assembly.

Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general, has tabled his ninth deficit budget since 2008.

He raised eyebrows when he announced that allocation for PO1 (Chief Minister and State Secretariat Offices) will see an increase of RM546.02 million, from RM161.59 million in 2016 to RM707.61 million for 2017.

Earlier during his speech, Lim said we are entering a “black swan event” following the shocking triumph of US president-elect Donald Trump at the recent elections.

Black swan events are “typically random and are unexpected”.

“All figures are meaningless and irrelevant because of Donald Trump," said Lim.

He then said Penang faces three main challenges, namely providing affordable homes, addressing traffic congestion and flooding, which has recently disrupted the lives of Penangites.

“We may not be able to find answers from the federal government but we found a solution in public, private and people partnership to aid state projects."

He said the new budget will help realise Penang as an “entrepreneur state” and will continue to transform the state’s economy from "one of the dirtiest in the past" to a greener, healthier, and safer one from now on.

Lim noted that the country recorded a 4.5 percent growth this year after expanding to five percent in 2015, while Penang's growth was expected to remain at five percent in 2017.

“This is because Penang depended on the world GDP growth at 3.1 percent in 2016.

“However, all these were figures before Trump's victory at the recent US presidential elections.”

He said if Trump declared a trade war with China, Mexico and imposed tariffs on American products which were manufactured overseas, all predictions and recommendations for global economic growth would be negated.

Lim cautioned against a worse scenario next year, saying that compared to other states, Penang reduced its negative impact by relying on the service and manufacturing sectors which both contribute 50 percent and 45 percent respectively to the state's GDP in 2015.

He declared several successes for Penang including a surplus budget of RM574 million for the past eight years from 2008 to 2015, more than the total surplus under BN for the past 50 years (from 1957 to 2007), which was RM373 million.

"In other words, we took eight years to overcome the 50 years' performance under BN."

Other successes Lim boasted about included:

- Penang's assets doubled in eight years from RM850 million to RM1.6 billion;

- Compared to the period between 2000 to 2007, Penang from the year 2008 to 2015 recorded an increase of 87 percent (RM54.9 billion) in manufacturing investment from RM29.4 billion, while employment increased by 20 percent, from 128,317 compared to 106,583, and unemployment rate was at its lowest at 1.6 percent. There were vacancies for 20,000 workers in Penang.

- State debts reduced by 90 percent since 2008 and was at its lowest in the country, at RM69 million at the end of last year, while Pahang was at its highest at RM2.9 billion, followed by Sabah (RM2.6 billion), Sarawak (RM2.5 billion), Kedah (RM2.3 billion) and Kelantan RM1.3 billion.

- Penang's GDP per capita at RM44,847 in 2015 was higher than the national figure at RM37,104.