Najib Razak
The top international credit rating agency, Moody’s have independently assessed the PH government’s claims of RM1 trillion debt and self-declared debt-to-GDP ratio of 80.3%.
Moody’s have found those claims to be untrue and have maintained our debt ratio to be at 50.8% declared by the BN government previously.
You can mislead the people but you cannot mislead the experts.
Knowing how important such figures are and the impact is has on the economy, we had always been transparent in our disclosures and had adhered to strict international standards of reporting.
Even based on the PH’s government ratio of 80.3%, it is still lower than the 103.4% ratio reached in the mid 1980s – a ratio that had stayed above 70% for long period when Tun Mahathir’s first term as Prime Minister.
Malaysia did not go bankrupt then so there is no logic that Malaysia will be bankrupt at 50.8% or even at 80.3% – especially since 97% of our government debt is denominated in Ringgit.
The PH government must have the integrity to adhere to international standards and keep politics out when it comes to financial reporting.
Over the past month, this RM1 trillion debt story has contributed to the large foreign funds out-flow from our bond markets and to the 25 consecutive days of net foreign selling of our share market – a situation that can only cause losses to retail investors as well as the savings and dividends of our funds such as KWSP, Tabung Haji and ASN/ASB.
