Nazir Razak: Moody's 'junk' rating due to negative coverage of Malaysia

PETALING JAYA: Financial controversies in Malaysia need to be addressed, urges prominent banker and CIMB Group chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak.

"This is worrying. The market is much more negative about Malaysia than the rating agencies, taking us into 'junk' category, way below our fundamentals," said the brother of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in a post on his Instagram on Thursday.

Nazir, who is also CIMB group chairman, suspects that credit-default-swap traders have placed Malaysia in the "junk" category due to the large amount of negative coverage in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and the New York Times.

"All 'capital' people read at least one, if not all of them. We have to change the current narrative about Malaysia with answers or legal suits; can't just ignore them," he warned.

Though Nazir did not specify what Malaysia had to answer for, the country has made international headlines for controversies involving the Government-owned investment arm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

This is worrying. The market is much more negative about Malaysia than the rating agencies, taking us into "junk" category, way below our fundamentals. Suspect it's due to so much negative coverage in WSJ, FT and NYT - all "capital" people read at least one if not all of them. We have to change the current narrative about Malaysia with answers or legal suits; can't just ignore them. A photo posted by Nazir Razak (@nazir.razak) on Sep 23, 2015 at 9:43pm PDT