Economics
New Malaysia Central Bank Chief Strikes Neutral Tone on Rate
- Mahathir’s government reviewing major spending projects
- Inflation is benign, while ringgit performs better than peers
Photographer: Charles Pertwee/Bloomberg
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Malaysia’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate steady in the first policy meeting under a new governor, providing support to an economy that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is trying to revamp.
Bank Negara Malaysia held the overnight policy rate at 3.25 percent, it said in a statement in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, as predicted by all 19 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The economy’s growth momentum will likely be sustained, underpinned by domestic and external demand, while inflation for this year is forecast to be lower than initially projected, the central bank said.