A debt is a debt

WHEN Bank Negara released the fourth quarter (Q4) and 2020 gross domestic product (GDP) data about a month ago, the Finance Ministry (MoF) too released a report on Malaysia’s economic performance for last year at the same time. One of the interesting data that was revealed in that report was on Malaysia’s debt-to-GDP ratio.

In the narrative explained by the MoF, it showed that federal government debt had increased to RM879.6bil or 62.2% of the nation’s nominal GDP as at end-December 2020. The report also explained that statutory debt, which comprises of Malaysian Government Securities (MGS), Malaysian Government Investment Issue (MGII) and Malaysian Islamic Treasury Bills (MITB) stood at 58% of GDP, and was still below the 60% statutory limit that was raised last year.