Economists: Malaysia economy slowing down

Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim has resigned from his post last week after questions were raised on the central bank

BANK Negara has lowered Malaysia’s economic growth forecast for 2018 to 5% from its earlier estimate of 5.5%-6%. For those in the loop, the move is largely unsurprising.

After all, the country’s economy has expanded below the 5.5%-level over the last two consecutive quarters. In fact, Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been decelerating since the third quarter of 2017, when the economy grew by 6.2% year-on-year (y-o-y).