PUTRAJAYA, Jan 12 — The government is looking to maintain its spending in the next Budget, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said.

He said that the best course of action is to find ways to extract the most value out of the given constraints and Budget.

"As much as possible, we want to maintain the level of spending. I can speak for my ministry that we are in fact trying to expedite more projects, especially high-impact projects.

"These projects include food security, food value chain-related projects, renewable energy and green technology, upskilling and getting our workforce to meet the demands of the industry,” he said during the launch of open data platform OpenDOSM: Next Gen in Putrajaya today.

He said the gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter of 2022 performed better than expected and is a sign that the economy is recovering.

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the country’s GDP grew 14.2 per cent in the third quarter compared to the same period the previous year.

"The global economy will be challenging, to say the least. To say that we live in a bubble, and it won’t affect us, is a fairy tale.

"(The matter of) how much it affects us is a subject we have to finalise in the next two to three weeks in time for the Budget,” he said during the launch of open data platform OpenDOSM: Next Gen in Putrajaya today.

He said although there are differing outlooks on the country’s economy depending on the agency, the consensus appears to be an optimistic one.

"It is more or less on the same, in that we do have some breathing space where we can navigate the global expected recession without going through our own recession,” he said.

"I don’t think there will be any drastic revision from the previous forecast, but I think what we want to focus on is how to maximise the breathing space that we have,” he said.

Budget 2023 is scheduled to be tabled in Parliament on February 24, 2023.