Najib confident economic growth momentum will continue in 2nd quarter

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak (pix) is confident the nation's economic growth will be maintained in the second quarter of the year driven by political stability and investors' confidence towards government policies.

He said the momentum would also be spurred by vibrant domestic activities coupled with a competitive export sector in the first quarter.

"Godwilling, this encouraging development will help the economy reach the target growth of more than five per cent this year.

"This target is in tandem with the 5.2 per cent forecast by the International Monetary Fund for 2014," he said in Parliament today.

Najib was replying to a question from Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah (BN-Lenggong) who asked about Malaysia's current economic performance and how the country was fairing against its neighbours.

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said the economy showed an encouraging trend in the first quarter with real Gross Domestic Product registering a growth of 6.2 per cent.

He said this was the highest GDP growth recorded since the fourth quarter of 2012.

"In fact, this growth was better than that recorded by the Philippines (5.7 per cent), Indonesia (5.2 per cent), Singapore (5.1 per cent) and Thailand (-0.6 per cent).

"This performance was supported by robust domestic activities and favourable external factors," he added.

Najib also said the sterling performance was a result of the Government Transformation Programme, high level of domestic savings, strong international reserves, resilient banking system, low unemployment and inflow of rapid foreign investments. – Bernama