Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s(file pic) government will at the least need to sustain its development spending to prop up domestic demand next year, economists have said, even as it continues to deal with RM1 trillion in debt that has been blamed on embattled former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration.
KUALA LUMPUR: The government will likely present an expanded budget this Friday to temper a weak economic outlook, as it grapples with global recession fears, the protracted US-China trade war and a large debt pile left behind by its predecessors.
South-East Asia’s third-largest economy bucked a global cooling trend and grew faster than expected over the first half of 2019, but analysts say growing protectionist policies around the world will eventually drag on the trade-reliant country.
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