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Najib reiterates that federal gov't debt not at critical level

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has reiterated that the federal government’s debt is not at a critical level as rumoured by certain quarters.

Via his blog, the prime minister said as of June 2017, the debt was recorded at 50.9 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is lower than the 55 percent level set by the government.

"This proves that the government debt was still manageable, and also lower than the 53.2 percent as of end-June 2016. This is something that we should be proud of.

"At the same time, the ratio of government debt to Malaysia’s GDP is very much better in contrast to other developed countries such as Singapore at 112 percent, the United Kingdom (89.3 percent) and Canada (92.3 percent),” he added.

Najib also refuted allegations that the government was going to be bankrupt based on the federal government debt, when international economic bodies such as the World Bank had increased the growth projection for the 2017 GDP from 4.9 percent to 5.2 percent.

He said it did not make sense to say Malaysia was going bankrupt when many countries had shown interest in investing in the country and were looking at forming trade partnerships.

“Although the opposition is making slanderous allegations that Malaysia’s economy is about to crash just to gain power, the government is always seeking avenues to strengthen and place it on par with those of other major economic powers globally,” he added.

-- Bernama

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