Economist expects moderate growth of 4.7% for Malaysia's 2023 GDP

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s economy is expected to grow at a moderate pace of 4.7 per cent this year amidst a gradual decline in inflation, softening monetary policy and subpar commodity prices, an economist said.

Nonetheless, ANZ Bank chief economist (Southeast Asia and India), Sanjay Mathur projected the gross domestic product (GDP) growth to remain quite respectable as 2022 was a very strong year for Malaysia following the reopening of its borders, alongside many other positive developments.

"We also think that (Bank Negara Malaysia’s) monetary policy tightening has sort of come to an end, and anticipate that inflation -- which was never a very serious problem in Malaysia -- would ease a little more.

"I think the combination of growth and inflation bodes well for Malaysia right now,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the Asean Finance Innovation Summit here today.

Mathur was one of the speakers at the summit, where he delivered a visionary keynote address titled ‘Unleashing the most important trends for global businesses in the next five to 10 years and how they will impact ASEAN’.

On the external front, he said the reopening of China’s border would be supportive of Malaysia’s economy, especially in terms of tourism.

Meanwhile, he expects the Asean banking and financial industry to see mergers between conventional and digital banks to competitively serve a huge market, noting that the industry is currently experiencing bifurcating playing field, not only in Malaysia but also globally.

However, he emphasised that given the rapid advancement of technologies across the globe, traditional players have to also look at new technologies to continue delivering top-notch services.

"I do think that over a period of time, we will move to areas like how the credit approval processes can be somewhere between what a digital bank can do and what conventional banks can do,” he added. - Bernama