“I cannot tell you (the growth figure) but it will definitely be below -1.0 per cent,” he said when asked to comment on the projection by economists that the gross domestic product (GDP) will contract between -4.5 per cent and -5.0 per cent this year.
Bank Negara Malaysia’s GDP forecast for the year is between -1.0 per cent and one per cent.
Bank Negara will make an announcement on the first quarter GDP today.
“Wait for Bank Negara’s announcement tomorrow. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s will make another announcement the next day on the new forecast growth for 2009 and we will then know the position of the country’s economy,” he told reporters after officiating the launch of the Securities Commission Executive Enhancement and Development Programme, here yesterday.
Husni, however said that the economy would recover in the third quarter of this year, as the impact of the recent RM67 billion economic stimulus package begins to be felt.
As for 2010, he said the government believed growth would be positive.
Asked as to whether there would be more liberalisation measures in the near future, Husni said that the government is currently working on the development of new economic model for the country.
“The economic model is in the planning stage,” he said, adding that the government would study which areas should be further liberalised.
He said that the key thrust of the new model is the quality of investment and the people.
“Eventually, we will be opening up because we are part of the global system but the process of the liberalisation takes time,” he added.
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