Eye on budget preparation

THE announcement by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng that the new Pakatan Harapan govern­ment will table its first federal budget on Nov 2 has fired the starting pistol on speculation about what we will see on Budget Day and how it will affect the lives of millions of people in Malaysia in the years to come.

This type of speculation is normal and healthy in any economy but raises many challenges for the new government, which, with little or no track record at federal level, needs to establish its credibility early and decisively in the face of many issues that demand firm and immediate responses in some cases and considered, long-term responses in others.