The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is maintaining its economic growth outlook for Malaysia at 5.3% for 2018 and at 5% for 2019.
KUALA LUMPUR: A total of RM70bil in federal government debt is expected to mature in 2019, out of which about 25 per cent is to be redeemed in the first half of next year, reflecting a lower refinancing risk in the near term, said the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
In its 2019 Fiscal Outlook and Federal Government Revenues Estimates report released on Friday, the MoF said under the 2019 Budget, the federal government's gross borrowing requirements are anticipated to be higher for deficit financing and refinancing of mature papers.
"Despite higher borrowing requirement, the average gross financing need to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019 is estimated to remain well below the average International Monetary Fund (IMF) threshold of 15 per cent for emerging economies," it said.
The ministry further said that the government is also exploring to tap into international markets for portfolio diversification and new benchmarking purpose as well as stimulate financial market trading activities.
Elaborating further on the federal government debt, it said as of end-June 2018, the federal government debt stood at RM725.2 billion or 50.7 per cent of GDP, which is below the self-imposed limit of 55 per cent of GDP.
The debt comprised 97.1 per cent of domestically-issued papers denominated in ringgitwhile the balance of 2.9 per cent are offshore borrowings mainly in US dollar.
Consistent with IMF's definition, the MoF said the country's external debt comprised both public and private sector debt, which include offshore borrowings, non-resident holdings of ringgit-denominated debt securities, non-resident deposits as well as other external debt As of end-June 2018, the external debt edged up to RM936.5 billion (65.4 per cent) of GDP against RM879.8 billion (65 per cent) at end-2017.
The ministry said the public sector debt was higher at RM989.2 billion or 73.1 per cent of GDP as of end-2017, as compared with RM901.2 billion (73.2 per cent) at end-2016, with the federal government debt as the largest component at RM686.8 billion (69.5 per cent), followed by non-financial public corporations debt which increased to RM242.8 billion (24.5 per cent) from RM204billion (22.7 per cent) recorded at end-2016.
Meanwhile, the debt of statutory bodies increased to RM59.6 billion versus RM48.7 billion at end-2016, mainly attributed to guaranteed issuances by the Public Sector Home Financing Board to fund civil servants housing loans and borrowings by Perbadanan PR1MA to finance housing projects. - Bernama
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