KUALA LUMPUR: Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani has issued a rebuttal of an article by veteran journalist A. Kadir Jasin, in which the former newsman had criticised the former’s move to compare Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) to that of Singapore’s.
Johari also defended his assertion that Malaysia’s GDP was among the best in Asean despite the global economic slowdown, saying the facts he used were taken from official reports on the country’s economy as well as Bank Negara Malaysia.
Johari was referring to a statement he made on Sept 3, in which he said the nation’s economy had grown by 4.1 per cent in the first half of this year, while Singapore’s economy registered only a two per cent growth.
“Kadir (in his article) said my statement on the country’s economic growth for the first half of this year was “inaccurate and disputable”.
“For his information, I made the comparison between Malaysia and Singapore, and not with the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, because our country’s GDP per capita is much higher than that of the three countries,” Johari said in a statement today.
In his Sinar Harian column last weekend, Kadir said Johari should have compared Malaysia’s GDP to that of the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, instead of a developed country like Singapore.
The former New Straits Times group editor-in-chief had said that Johari’s comparison was inaccurate as Malaysia was still a developing country and could still record high economic growths, unlike other developed nations.
“Malaysia’s GDP is US$9,700 (RM40,055) per capita, while the Philippines’ is US$2,900 per capita, Indonesia’s is US$3,300 per capita and Vietnam’s is US$2,100 per capita.
“That is why I did not want to compare our country to the other three. This is also in line with Kadir’s argument that “the more developed the economy, the harder it is to generate high growth rates”.
“So, in this context, it is not wrong for me to use Singapore as a comparison.”
Johari also pointed out that the statement he made on Sept 3 was part of his reply to an “investor friend” from Singapore, who had shared with the former an article claiming Malaysia was heading towards bankruptcy.
“As a member of parliament and minister, I felt obligated to allay the Singaporean investor’s fears and doubts. I intentionally used Singapore as a comparison to help ease his understanding.”
He said Malaysia was on track towards becoming a developed nation by 2020, judging by its positive economic growth over the last 18 years.
“In 2015 and 2016, despite the drop in global crude oil prices, that caused the government to lose over RM30 billion in income, the country still recorded a positive economic growth of five per cent and 4.1 per cent, respectively.”
Johari, in his statement, also refuted Kadir’s claim that it would not be a problem for developed nations to incur higher debts as they were able to settle them.
“His statement is inaccurate because there are advanced nations with high debt rates that could not settle their debts, leading to stunted economic growth,” he said, citing countries like Italy, Spain and Ireland as examples.