SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 16 — Malaysia and other developing economies raised concern on the protracted tight monetary policy in the West that has an adverse impact on emerging nations, the Ministry of Finance’s secretary general Datuk Johan Mahmood Merican said.
“At the global level there is still this — stubborn inflation, which translates into the West having a tight monetary policy, which emerging economies such as Malaysia and Indonesia have highlighted.”
“As the large developed nations continued to maintain a tight monetary policy for a longer period of time, it obviously has an impact on the growth outlook for countries like Malaysia,” he told Bernama after representing Malaysia at the Apec Finance Ministers’ Meeting here.
“The risk of escalating conflicts in both Ukraine and the Middle East poses a major downside risk for global growth, inflation and supply chain disruptions,” he added.
According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), global inflation is forecast at 6.5 per cent in 2023 and at 4.1 per cent by 2024.
“Hence, the discussion also highlighted the need to minimise supply chain disruption which would help tackle inflation.
“There were broad affirmation of the importance in having a multilateral platform like Apec, maintaining free flow of trade and investments, which would help minimise the risk associated with supply chain disruption,” he said.
“We also took the opportunity to highlight some of the priorities and targets set under the Madani Economy, among which is increasing the labour share of income to over 40 per cent and increasing the female labour force participation rate up to 60 per cent.”
It is interesting that many Apec member economies were also giving similar attention to facilitating the female work force, he said, adding that as an example, Canada’s focus was on bringing down the cost of childcare.
“Like the Philippines and Singapore, in Budget 2024, Malaysia announced its own incentives for childcare and to encourage women to come back to work after a career break. It seems to be a common area of emphasis for Apec member economies,” he said. — Bernama
