I am a retired banker who had been in the industry for 33 years. First of all, I believe the minister meant well in wanting to inject more liquidity into the market to jump-start the economy. In fact, Lim had been prodding the banks to ease lending for some time now, and his latest directive was his strongest plea yet.
Banks also need to make profits in order to be sustainable so that they can support the economy and the wellbeing of over 160,000 Malaysians employed in the banking sector. Take the property market. A large part of the imbalance is due to the mismatch in housing prices and affordability. The median household income has experienced slower increase, relative to median property prices. According to Bank Negara reports, the median property prices is five times higher than the median household income.
As of end 2018, Bank Negara Malaysia data show there’s an overhang of 35,000 residential units worth RM30 billion. If we include the unsold, under construction properties, there’d be 169,000 units valued at RM93 billion. On top of that, our household debt to GDP ratio, which stood at 83% last year, remains at alarming heights by global standards.These are not exactly sterling statistics on the country’s economic health.
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