Mahathir pushes Malaysia budget gap to highest since 2013

(The Edge) – Malaysia’s government will push its budget deficit to the highest in five years and will hike taxes and draw more income from the state oil company to help plug the shortfall.

In the first budget since Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad took office in May, the government is widening its deficit target for this year to 3.7% of gross domestic product, from a 2.8% target under the previous government. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of nine economists was 3.2%.