The Financial Times Confidential Research team has predicted that the 14th general election would be held in the third quarter of this year, with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on track to retain his grip on power.

The research arm of international economic daily Financial Times said it also believes the Election Commission's contested redelineation exercise would be completed by the end of the second quarter.

"We expect Najib to win the next general election despite being tainted by the 1MDB corruption scandal.

"A successful redelineation exercise and a divided opposition mean the chances of a change in power are exceedingly low in Malaysia," it said in a research paper.

The research team added that Najib would also benefit from expected failure in negotiations between Pakatan Harapan and PAS.

Najib has hinted that the elections would be held soon, but the actual date remains a mystery, similar to what transpired prior to the previous general election in 2013.

The prime minister has also denied misappropriating 1MDB funds, blaming such allegations on those wanting to topple him.

The predictions about GE14 was part of the FT research team's report on a survey on economic and political sentiments among 1,000 Malaysian respondents.

The survey found that Malaysians were among the most pessimistic of Asean respondents, with the economic sentiment index for Malaysia dropping 10.6 points to 19 in the fourth quarter.

The political sentiment index for Malaysia also dropped 6.1 points over the same period to 22.9.

FT Confidential Research believed that uncertainty over the upcoming polls, as well as the depreciating ringgit might have contributed to the dismal outlook.

"(Malaysians are) the only ones expecting their domestic economic and political climates to deteriorate over the next six months," it said.

The research team said economic sentiment fell despite "recent improvements in the economy."

"We expect the Malaysian economy to grow by between 4.4 percent and 4.7 percent in 2017, up from an estimated 4.2 percent this year," it added.