Undoing Mahathir’s damage

January 23, 2024

KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and 31 cabinet ministers recently joined a two-day, one-night brainstorming camp to discuss development plans that will benefit the rakyat.

This shows that the Unity Government is indeed placing a lot of emphasis on the revitalisation of the country’s economy. Unfortunately, due to some unfavourable factors, it will not be easy for the Anwar administration to achieve its goals.

The Statistics Department has projected the country’s 2023 last quarter GDP growth to be just around 3.4%, with the full-year growth at 3.8%, far below the 8.7% recorded in 2022.

In the meantime, December exports also fell drastically by 10%, more than market anticipation, while full-year exports contracted 8%.

Additionally, the United States saw an unexpected rise in December inflation, prompting the Fed to defer its rate cut plan. As a consequence, the ringgit has trended downwards against the greenback. And the attacks on Red Sea cargo ships by Hunthi militants have only served to send shipping fees through the roof, and push domestic goods prices higher.

While we have come under tremendous stress from slowing global economy and trade, geopolitical conflicts continue to disrupt supply chains, and this is expected to hamper the Unity Government’s effort to lower the cost of living for Malaysians.

Although the country’s consumer price index (CPI) stabilised at 1.5% last month, many people still the weight of soaring goods prices. And the 22 sen per cubic metre water tariff hike for consumers on Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan Federal Territory, already approved by the government to take effect from next month, is poised to exacerbate the burden of the rakyat.

In view of this,