IMF team says Malaysia economy 'quite okay'

IMF team says Malaysia economy 'quite okay'

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

A senior International Monetary Fund official visiting
Malaysia during the throes of a sharp slowdown declared on
Thursday the economy was "quite okay".

A five-member IMF party, who arrived in Kuala Lumpur late on
Wednesday, met central bank and Securities Commission officials
and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during a fact
finding visit, which marks the last leg of a four-country tour.

"We don't have any judgment about the economic policies,"
Indonesia's IMF Executive Director Dono Iskandar Djojosubroto
told reporters.

"But we agreed that Malaysia is quite okay compared with other
countries like Indonesia...inflation is low, budget is
sustainable."

Malaysia's inflation is under two percent, its fiscal deficit
is forecast to come down to 5.0 percent of GDP next year, after
it was raised to 6.5 percent this year in a bid to reduce the
pain of the slowdown, and debt is within tolerable levels.

The IMF team had no other business other than gathering
information.

"We are here to listen rather than to talk. We are not a
negotiating team," Djojosubroto said.

Two executive directors in the original delegation to tour
Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia had had to return home
for some "emergency business", Djojosubroto said.

China's IMF Executive Director Wei Benhua, who heads the
delegation, described talks with central Bank Negara Governor
Zeti Akhtar Aziz as fruitful.

Malaysia rejected IMF medicine in pulling itself out of a
regional financial crisis in 1997-1998, preferring home-grown
remedies including a dollar peg for its ringgit currency and the
imposition of wide-ranging capital and dealing controls.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who blamed currency
speculators and hedge funds for the crisis, has previously hit
out at the IMF and World Bank as being in thrall to rich nations
and their multinational corporations.