PUTRAJAYA: Bank Negara and the Treasury will have to review the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decision to revise Malaysia’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 4.1%, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister said the IMF revised its economic growth forecast this year for many countries in the world.
“For the United States, China and most countries, it is slightly down.
“We, Bank Negara and the Treasury, will have to relook at it and review it. I will announce.
“I will give a complete statement in Parliament on May 5,” said Anwar while attending a Hari Raya Aidilfitri reception at the Customs Department in Putrajaya on Thursday (April 24).
Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, is set to deliver his remarks on the US tariff issue at the special Dewan Rakyat sitting on May 5 which will begin at 11am.
MPs from both sides of the divide will debate the issue after Anwar delivers his remarks.
The IMF downgraded Malaysia’s real GDP growth forecast for this year to 4.1% from 4.7% previously.
In its April 2025 World Economic Outlook report titled "A Critical Juncture amid Policy Shifts", the IMF also projected Malaysia’s economy to expand by 3.8% next year.
The IMF trimmed its global growth forecast for this year to 2.8%, down 0.5 percentage points from its January estimate.
Among Malaysia’s regional peers, the IMF cut Indonesia’s outlook for this year to 4.7% from 5.1%.
The Philippines is now expected to grow by 5.5%, down from 6.1%, while Thailand’s forecast was revised to 1.8% from 2.9%.
The fund said major policy shifts were reshaping the global trade landscape and reigniting uncertainty, once again testing the global economy’s resilience.
Except for China, US president Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on the implementation of retaliatory tariffs, just hours after the tariffs against US trading partners came into effect on April 9.
Malaysia’s exports to the US were originally subjected to 24% retaliatory tariffs.
As negotiations continued, Trump said he was authorising a universal "lowered reciprocal tariff of 10%” against countries that have not retaliated.
However, on April 22, the United States announced new duties as high as 3,521% on solar imports from four South-East Asian countries, including Malaysia.
The duties are the result of a yearlong trade probe that found solar manufacturers in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand were unfairly benefiting from government subsidies and selling exports to the United States at rates lower than the cost of production.
