PETALING JAYA: The government today sought to explain how Malaysia’s inclusion in the monitoring list of the US Treasury is a positive development, saying it only highlights the strength of the economy and Malaysia’s role in the global arena.
“Malaysia is included in the monitoring list due to two factors. Firstly, Malaysia has a trade balance with the US of more than US$20 billion a year. Secondly, Malaysia has a healthy current account surplus of more than 2% of its GDP,” he said in a statement. According to the Treasury’s report to Congress on macroeconomics and foreign exchange policies released this month, China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore and Vietnam are also on the list.
Once on the monitoring list, economies will remain there for at least two consecutive reports to help ensure that any improvement in performance versus the criteria is durable and not due to temporary factors. Lim said the inclusion of Malaysia alongside other major trading economies like Germany, South Korea, Japan and Singapore only emphasises its economic strength.