Malaysia moves down the most miserable economy scale: Bloomberg

The Malaysian economy got the notable mention in Bloomberg’s economic mysery scale. It moved down the scale to No. 52, from No. 43 showed the Bloomberg terminal.

Rising prices are more of a threat to the global economy this year than joblessness, according to Bloomberg’s Misery Index, which sums inflation and unemployment outlooks for 66 economies, including Malaysia’s economy.

“The tepid price growth is allowing Bank Negara Malaysia to be patient with interest-rate hikes, even as they were first in the region this year to tighten,” said Bloomberg.

In the Southeast Asian region, Thailand again claimed “least miserable” status.

Singapore is at No. 2 which is notable since it is one of the least miserable economy.

The Bloomberg Misery Index relies on the age-old concept that low inflation and unemployment generally illustrate how good an economy’s residents should feel.

Sometimes, of course, a low tally can be misleading in either category: Persistently low prices can be a sign of poor demand, and too-low joblessness shackles workers who want to switch to better jobs, for instance.

Yesterday, AmBank Group Research said the Malaysian economy may have peaked and is expected to grow at a moderate pace in 2018 partly due to the high base despite being supported by investment, major infrastructure projects and exports.

In a note today, AmBank group chief economist and head of research Anthony Dass maintained his forecast of 5.5% gross domestic product (GDP) for 2018.

“In line with our expectation, the 4Q2017 GDP print stood at 5.9% year-on-year (y/y) from 6.2% y/y in 3Q2017, beating market consensus of 5.7%.

“This brings the 2017’s full-year GDP of 5.9% y/y to fall in-line with our expectation from 4.2% in 2016.

“The economy in 4Q2017 was driven by the surge in government spending of 6.9% y/y from 3.9% and favourable private consumption growth of 7.0% y/y from 7.2% in 3Q2017,” he said.