Malaysian economy problems

Transport Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Isham Ishak speaks at the press conference held at the Penang contigent police headquarters in George Town, on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2022. (Bernama pix) - A + A GEORGE TOWN (Aug 9): The Road Transport Act 1987 will be amended to impose heavier penalties on illegal motorcycle racers or "mat rempit", in an effort to combat such activities which are dangerous to other motorcyclists and road users. Transport Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Isham Ishak said the amendment involves Section 42 of the Road Transport Act 1987 on higher fines, prison terms and seizure of workshops that modify mat rempit motorcycles for illegal racing. "The Ministry of Transport has held discussions with several government agencies including the Royal Malaysian Police, the Road Transport Department (RTD) and the Malaysian Road Safety Research Institute (MIROS) to deal with the problem of mat rempit, which is becoming more prevalent now. "As for the … [Read more...] about Harsher punishment for ‘mat rempit’ with Road Transport Act amendment

Representative Image In the August Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the Indian Rupee (INR) has fared “much better than several reserve currencies as well as many of its EME and Asian peers”. The Governor also added that the INR has depreciated “more on account of the appreciation of US dollar rather than weakness in macroeconomic fundamentals of the Indian economy”. Of late, there has been a lot of discussion around the INR. Towards the end of July, the rupee touched 80 against a US dollar , leading to discussions that it is a sign of a weakening Indian economy. But, is this the case? First, exchange rate increasing or decreasing against a foreign currency is not a sign of weakness or strength. In fact depreciation of the currency is often cited as a positive development for the domestic economy. If a currency depreciates against a foreign currency, the exports become cheaper with respect to the other country, and imports … [Read more...] about USD vs INR | India’s macroeconomic fundamentals are strong

According to Mustapa, the number of unemployed decreased to 630,600 in June, from 637,700 people the previous month. (Photo by Zahid Izzani Mohd Said/The Edge) - A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 9): The unemployment rate continued to show a downward trend, recording 3.8% in June — the lowest since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country — said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. He said the number of unemployed decreased to 630,600 in June, from 637,700 people the previous month. Citing the June 2022 Malaysian Labour Force Statistics published by the Department of Statistics Malaysia on Tuesday (Aug 9), Mustapa said the country had reached full employment since April, in terms of the unemployment rate being below 4% as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Therefore, he said the position of the labour force was more stable following an increase in the number of workers of 0.2% to 16.57 million … [Read more...] about Malaysia’s unemployment rate down to 3.8% in June, lowest since Covid-19 pandemic struck

New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta responds to queries during the Question-and-Answer session of the Foreign Policy for Small States lecture series, organised by the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) at the IDFR Auditorium in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2022. (Bernama pix) - A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 9): Malaysia and New Zealand are a powerful demonstration of how small states can work together bilaterally, regionally and globally in dealing more effectively with the current global and regional geopolitical challenges, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said. Both countries served together on the United Nations (UN) Security Council in 2015-16 and worked closely in another area, disarmament and arms control. “We also cooperate on international law issues, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.  Last year New Zealand joined others in setting out our legal position on the South China Sea, in support of … [Read more...] about Malaysia and New Zealand have demonstrated how small states can work together

Representative image The Reserve Bank of India announced measures to ease forex inflows. This explainer helps us understand the measures and objectives behind them. What are forex inflows and why are they needed? One of the major factors of a country’s growth is higher savings. Savings are channelised into investments, which help drive the growth of an economy. If the domestic savings rate is low or the investment rate is higher than the savings rate, foreign exchange savings can be used to bridge the gap. Foreign exchange savings are nothing but net inflows of foreign capital. The Indian economy was liberalised in 1991 and efforts were made to attract forex inflows. There are various categories of forex such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI), NRI deposits, and External Commercial Borrowings (ECB). The government and the Reserve Bank of India welcome equity flows such as FDI and FPI, but are cautious about debt inflows because heavy … [Read more...] about MC Explains | Will steps to liberalise forex inflows help the rupee?

A crowd at an election rally in Uttar Pradesh. (Image Source: AP/File photo) The prime minister has set the cat among the pigeons, with his fusillade against election freebies while inaugurating the Bundelkhand expressway. He said the culture of garnering votes by promising freebies harms the country’s economic development and warned the youth, ‘Your present will be lost and your future pushed into darkness.’ Those who believe in distributing freebies, he said, would never build infrastructure, sorely needed for securing the country’s future. That little speech succinctly lays out the rationale against populism---it promises instant gratification, at the cost of future penury. Predictably, the speech drew the ire of AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who defended his trademark policy of giving away free power. His promise of giving 300 units of free power to each household if his party wins the Gujarat elections is estimated to cost the state Rs 8700 crore a year. It is policies such as … [Read more...] about The hidden cost of free lunches

Dear Reader , The Panorama newsletter is sent to Moneycontrol Pro subscribers on market days. It offers easy access to stories published on Moneycontrol Pro and gives a little extra by setting out a context or an event or trend that investors should keep track of. In a case of how cheer for the economy may not be so for markets, investors in US stocks fretted over excellent jobs data. US businesses added 5,28,000 jobs in July, beating most estimates by an embarrassing margin. US 2-year treasuries rose after the report, as the market priced in a more certain likelihood of another 75-basis point rate hike by the US Fed. But the S&P 500 slipped, as investors pondered over what too strong an economy could mean for interest rates. Those fears did not carry over to India, however, with the stock market rising by a strong 0.8 percent at 1.15pm. The RBI’s 50 basis point hike in the repo rate last week and its determination to stay in ‘withdrawal of accommodation’ mode is … [Read more...] about Moneycontrol Pro Panorama | Are US and Indian markets decoupling?

- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 9): The Federal Court has ruled that road accident victims should be automatically compensated without having to sue insurance companies, according to a report by Free Malaysia Today . In delivering the landmark ruling, Federal Court judge Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli said the provisions of the Road Transport Act 1987 should be construed to protect all motorists, including victims of road accidents. He also said that Parliament's intention in enacting the law was to protect innocent third-party road users. According to the news portal, Rahman said this in a 140-page judgement on a decision delivered by a three-member bench he led last week — the two other judges were Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim and Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang — that allowed the appeals of eight motorists, seven of whom were injured in motor accidents. Five of the appeals involved Pacific & Orient Insurance Co Ltd, Amgeneral Insurance Bhd, Allianz General Insurance … [Read more...] about Landmark: Fed Court rules that crash victims should be automatically compensated

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin It’s a popular narrative on the Left at the moment to say that members of the Right have an unhealthy disdain for “experts.” Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell is a notable critic on the matter, but the view here is that her criticism misses the mark. Reasonable members of the Right don’t loathe experts as much as they dislike central control. Reducing all of this to the absurd, let’s imagine for fun that the smartest individual in the United States is none other than our President, Joe Biden. In a nation populated by geniuses, Biden sitting at the top in terms of intelligence wouldn’t alter a simple truth frequently ignored by the expert reverent: there’s arguably not a fraction yet conceived that could properly convey how small Biden’s knowledge would be relative to the collective knowledge of the American people. All of which hopefully explains why markets always and everywhere beat central planning. It’s … [Read more...] about Central Planning Fails Just As Much When Conservatives Are the Planners

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The growth trajectory of the largest national entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — has many concerned, understandably so. But state and local unfunded pension liabilities must also be counted among the major challenges to U.S. fiscal health. According to Pew research, unfunded state pension liabilities reached a combined $1.25 trillion in 2019. Other projections that assume more modest investment returns find total unfunded state pension liabilities today in excess of $8 trillion . The trillions of dollars in growing unfunded public pension liabilities, for which taxpayers are ultimately on the hook, is a problem that could soon be exacerbated by a new federal tax in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that will diminish state and local pension plan returns. “We should not increase taxes, and we did not increase taxes,” Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) said about the IRA on NBC’s Meet the … [Read more...] about Stock Buyback Tax Will Harm State & Local Pensions