Malaysia Economy

Malaysia Econonmy in Ox Year

January 2009 is the time when most of the corporate having their Q4 earning announcement. Quite number of corporate executives end up lost their bonus, pay cut, resigned and some even got fired. Citibank’s Rubin has resigned, Merrill Lynch’s CEO John Thain also resigned, Bank of America’s executives and Citibank’s executives also accept pay cut. Next will be people losing their jobs, Intel cuts 5000-6000 employees and Craig Barett going to retired in May 2009, Qimonda AG filed bankruptcy protection,.....

Is Malaysia ready for this economy crisis? (I use economy crisis instead of financial crisis because it is no longer just financial problem. Almost all the sectors are impacted.) United State has cut their interest rate to 0.25%, this follow by UK until 1.5%, Japan to 0.1% and others countries also doing the same. Malaysia only announced OPR cut of 0.25% (on Nov 24, 2008) and follows by another OPR cut of 0.75% on (Jan 22, 2009). Are this OPR enough to get our economy going? Does RM 7 billion enough to maintain Malaysia economy? I don’t even see any solid plan from the government on the stimulus plan. So far no details are disclosed.

I would think the OPR should further reduce, since more and more people are losing their jobs in Malaysia. Malaysia is not like China with huge population that might able to absorb the economy slowdown. Malaysia quite depends on foreign investment and export. With recent news of Qimonda AG filed bankruptcy, what would happen to the plant in Melaka? Intel shuts down two plants in Penang and redeploys their employee to Kulim. But no one ever mentioned what will happen to the supporting industrial, like the nearby restaurants, properties price, and other service sectors. It is obvious that the impact is not just to factory workers. It should also include those people that provide services to the factory workers.

More and more people are facing hard time to service their loan. Certain people might have some saving to sustain their household expenses when they are looking for jobs. With the current situation in Malaysia, reducing the interest rate further will certainly help them to reduce their burden in serving their loan.
Hope the coming year, all this will get better. Hope in the coming Ox year, the Ox will bring bullish to the economy.

p/s I just came back from my Chinese friend house. We wrapped dumplings (jiaozi 饺子). In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (jiaozi 饺子) after Chinese New Year eve dinner and have it around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape is like a Chinese tael. By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a New Year cake (Niangao, 年糕) after dinner and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the New Year.