KUALA LUMPUR: The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) upward revision of Malaysia's 2017 GDP forecast to 4.8 per cent shows that the nation is on track in terms of fiscal consolidation.
International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said: "This confirms a number of assessments made by research houses, like Nomura, and in fact a number of them are a lot more optimistic than that.
"As stated by the IMF, this is significant because of the steady monetary policy of the central bank. They commended our monetary policy and fiscal policy," he said, after launching the National eCommerce Forum at the ministry here today.
He added that, as per the statements made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Malaysia is on track in terms of fiscal consolidation.
"We have exports doing well and investments coming in. The outlook looks good. In fact when the budget was presented last year, a number of them did not believe that we could hit 4.3 per cent (growth).
"Our range was 4.3 to 4.8 per cent GDP growth in 2017 and the IMF has confirmed that we are in the upper range, and some people are saying that it could indeed be better than that.
"This (i.e. IMF’s upgrading of the GDP forecast) is an endorsement of the sound economic policies pursued by our Prime Minister and the Government of Malaysia, and we are on the right track," Mustapa said.