PM Najib Criticises Those Manipulating Facts On National Economy

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Wednesday urged those who liked to manipulate facts on the national economy to stop the slander-based politics. He said the international Fitch Ratings agency had maintained Malaysia's ratings at the 'A-' level following the stable national economic and financial position. "This proves that the country's economic resilience level and capacity of the government's #Bajet2017. Fitch had agreed that the national debt was under control below 55 per cent and we are capable of achieving the fiscal deficit target. "Stop the slander-based politics. The public can evaluate," he said in his Twitter website. Last Friday, Najib who is also the Finance Minister tabled the 2017 Budget at the Dewan Rakyat (Malaysian Parliament) which proposed an allocation of US$62.51 billion (RM260.8 billion) - of which US$51.48 billion (RM214.8 billion) was for operating expenditure and US$11.02 billion (RM46 billion) for development expenditure. According to a Fitch Ratings press release on Monday, Malaysia's federal budget pointed to further stability in public finances, despite another decline in revenue from the oil and gas sector. "Fitch expects the 2016 deficit to come in at 3.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product), but views the 2017 target as achievable. "We believe it is unlikely that the target will be missed by enough to push public debt above the self-imposed ceiling of 55 per cent of GDP. Fitch estimates that federal government debt will remain under 54 per cent of GDP at end-2016," the statement said. --BERNAMA