KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 – Amid the ongoing challenges globally, Malaysia is expected to register a moderate growth of 4 to 5 percent in 2023 compared with the 6.5 to 7.0 seen in 2022, Minister of Finance Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said when tabling the national budget for next year at the Parliament here today.
Despite the challenges worldwide, Malaysia continued to record growth in its economy, reaching 8.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022, the highest in the region, he said.
He also said that the country was doing well despite what were being said. He announced a budget of RM372.3 billion ringgit for 2023, a significant rise from the RM332 billion allocated in 2021.
A total of 12,000 proposals came from the public, while dialogues were held with industry members and shareholders and over 250 memorandum were also looked into when considerations were being made for the budget, Zafrul said.
He said the Budget took into account various factors including the high inflation rate, external factors of uncertainty worldwide and the consequential rice in prices.
The Budget has been planned with all segments of societies and their needs and more than 100 initiatives will be taken by the government to address the well being of the people, businesses, economic growth as public services.
From the Budget, RM272.3 billion will go to administration cost, RM95 billion on development and RM5 billlion to the Covid group funds and another RM2 billion will be set aside for extraordinary expenditure.
Among the highlights of the Budget, included higher cash assistance payouts for various groups of people, small and medium industries and allocations to the various ministries.