Consumer spending holds key

WHEN Malaysia faced an economic downturn in the late 1990s as a result of the Asian financial crisis, then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad (now Tun) urged Malaysian consumers not to pull back their spending so as to help the country get out of recession.

And even now, as the country faces another challenging phase caused by the global financial crisis, economists say Malaysian consumers still hold the key to sustaining the country’s economic growth.