GDP growth decelerated sharply in 4Q08

As anticipated, by nearly everyone else except the BN government, economic (GDP) growth plunged in the last 3 months of 2008. Just 0.1% growth was reported. The jaded analyst in me is suspicious of this number, which just made it to positive territory. My prediction: Sometime in the near future, this number will be revised down and be in negative territory.

BN still has its head-in-the-sand. While it is flip-flopping on toll rate hikes and still predicting growth this year in 2009, those of us who work at real businesses instead of relying on government handouts know that recession is more likely.

Which makes the impending stimulus plan very crucial. Planned and executed well, it will help buffer Malaysians against this global economic downturn. But what happened to the first RM7bn stimulus in the first place? As an interested reader put it, “Can we as rakyat ask the government to table in parliament all the details of the projects that have benefited from the allocation. for example, if it is a bridge project, please name the description of the bridge, the location, the person awarded to, the contract sum, the contract period and henceforth ...”