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513307
Thu, 11/22/2018 - 04:41
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Rating Agencies Not Lowering Malaysia's Rating - Finance Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- International rating agencies have not downgraded Malaysia's credit rating despite lowering its growth rate, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said. He said this showed that they were confident of the Pakatan Rakyat (PH) government’s commitment in restoring the country's fiscal and financial position. "Even though they have forecast that the growth will be lower, Malaysia's rating remains unchanged. This is a very important sign,” he said when winding up debate on the 2019 Budget for his ministry at the Dewan Rakyat (lower house of Parliament) on Wednesday. He responding to an interjection from Najib Tun Razak (BN) who raised Fitch Solutions Macro Research’s downward revision of Malaysia’s growth forecast to 4.6 per cent for 2018 and 4.2 per cent for 2019. In another development, Lim said his ministry was still waiting for further details from the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) to finalise the framework of the FundMyHome scheme implementation. “Let's wait for the details to be finalised and wait for the SC’s announcement to enable transactions and trading can be made for the remaining 80 per cent," he said. The scheme allows first-time house buyers pay 20 per cent of the purchase price, while the balance will be borne by institutional investors through the peer-to-peer financing framework. The Dewan Rakyat approved the PH government’s maiden budget at the policy level. -- BERNAMA

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