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Najib: Malaysia on track for 5pc growth

Tuesday, 02 December 2008 07:33am

©The Malaysian Insider (Used by permission)
By Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 – Malaysia will show a 5 per cent GDP growth for 2008 if the fourth quarter growth hits 1.4 per cent, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.

This is on the back of the Q3 announcement of 4.7 per cent growth. Earlier this morning, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi had projected the economy to grow by at least 3.5 per cent in the fourth quarter which will enable the economy to register an overall growth of 5.5 per cent for the year.

"We are still on target for 3.5 per cent growth in 2009 if the RM7 billion stimulus package is executed effectively and the external environment does not worsen," the Deputy Prime Minister told reporters after this morning's Economic Council meeting.

On links to the Mumbai terrorist attacks, he said that they were "unsubstantiated and without evidence" but that local security forces have been in touch with Interpol and are awaiting further details.

It had been reported that terrorists involved in the attacks had used Malaysian documents and credit cards.

Najib also said that the council was briefed on the crime situation by the Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Inspector General Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan.

"The police has been informed by the council that the people are hoping for the police to increase effectiveness and some things can be done to improve the image and pulic confidence in the force," he said, adding that the crime situation is closely linked to the confidence of businesses and tourists.

He said that according to the briefing, Malaysia has a lower per capita crime rate than Hong Kong and Japan but the public perception was otherwise.

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