KANTOI: Economist dismisses Rafizi’s ‘unprecedented’ economic growth claim

(FMT) – A former Economic Action Council executive director has dismissed economy minister Rafizi Ramli’s claim that Malaysia recently witnessed “unprecedented” economic growth from one quarter to another in a single year.

In a Facebook post, Noor Azlan Ghazali said based on data by the statistics department of Malaysia, economic growth was recorded 15 consecutive times since the first quarter of 2016.

And while the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the country’s economic growth from 2020 to 2021, it began to pick up in the fourth quarter of 2021.

“And there had been continuous growth until the third quarter of last year.

“So we have had four quarters of consecutive economic growth,”said Azlan, who is director of the Malaysian Inclusive Development and Advancement Institute under Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Yesterday, Rafizi was reported to have said that the back-to-back quarterly growth the country recorded proved that the Madani economic framework was working.

“This is the first time in years that economic growth from one quarter to another has registered subsequent growth and this is unprecedented,” Malay Mail quoted Rafizi as saying.

Rafizi said this in response to former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s claim that public confidence in the government’s economic management was eroding.

But Azlan said, generally, the economic growth per quarter had been positive unless the country was enduring a crisis.

“In essence, economic growth for three consecutive quarters is rather common.

“While I agree it is encouraging, there is nothing extraordinary about it.”