Treasury: Malaysia not going bankrupt

The central bank announced that this was because he had ceased to hold the office of secretary-general of the Treasury from that date.

PUTRAJAYA: The claim by certain people that Malaysia will be bankrupt following the ringgit slump and drop in oil price is wrong, says Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah (pic).

He said the country’s economy was still growing strong at the rate of more than 5% and new approaches would be undertaken to ensure continued prudent spending by the Government.

Mohd Irwan said Malaysia was not the only country facing difficulties.

“Many countries that are dependent on a commodity-based economy, such as Australia, Russia and Brazil, are experiencing a worse decline in the value of their currencies due to the drop in the world oil price and strengthening of the US dollar,” he said.

“Currently, our economy is still growing and stronger compared to that during the 1997-1998 financial crisis where it was negative,” Mohd Irwan said during the recording of TV Alhijrah’s special talk programme “Tea Time with the managing director of Shell Malaysia, Azman Ismail” here yesterday.

“At the moment, we are still able to pay the salary of our civil servants,” he said.

“If the country is bankrupt, we will not be able to pay them.”

Mohd Irwan said the setting up of the Special Economic Com­mittee, chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar, recently was part of Government efforts to overcome the current economic challenges.

He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak would soon announce the measures to be undertaken based on the proposals of the committee, besides the 2016 Budget, on Oct 23.

“These are among the Government’s plans; not all are pretty as each country has weaknesses but we try to increase the good things so that the country’s economy remains strong,” he added. — Bernama