KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 – Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said that the current dollar dropped is not as bad as the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98 following the country’s strong economic fundamentals. He said the local banking system, coupled with economic activity, still intact to spur economic growth, and the country still are on track to achieve growth of gross domestic product between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent this year.
“In 1997 and 1998 (Asian financial crisis), we hit hard,” he said, adding that at that time many factors affect Malaysia, including the trade deficit, the reserve falls below US $ 30 billion and a high debt levels among companies,” he told reporters after GLC Open Day Forum, here, today.
The level we have now changing rapidly, with our consistent trade surplus, our reserves are three times larger than at the time and our corporate debt levels are actually much lower,” he added. In terms of the banking system, Wahid said banks are now well managed and have the liquidity with asset quality and loan ratio of net imports stood at 1.2 percent, is regulated by the central bank.
The local currency continued its downward trend and ended lower against the greenback today at 3.9220 / 9250 from 3.9005 / 9035 on Thursday. At the close, the dollar fell 0.6 percent to 3.9280 against the US dollar, its lowest level since Sept 2, 1998, the day before Malaysia peg the local currency to 3.8000 against the US dollar during the Asian financial crisis.
