IMF...................................WB...............................CIA
rank/measure..................rank/measure....................rank/measure
63/6,956.........................54/6,807...........................61/7,509
Early and colonial history
The Malay Peninsula and indeed Southeast Asia has been a center for trade for centuries. Various items such as porcelain and spice were actively traded even before Malacca and Singapore rose to prominence. The Malacca Sultanate controlled the Straits of Malacca from its founding in 1402 to the 1511 invasion by Portugal. All the trade in the Straits, and especially the spices from the Celebes and the Moluccas, moved under its protection and through its markets.In the 17th century, porcelain and spices were found in several Malay states and were actively traded. Large deposits of tin were found in several Malay states. Later, as the British started to take over as administrators of Malaya, rubber and palm oil trees were introduced for commercial purposes. Instead of relying on the local Malays as a source of labour, the British brought in Chinese and Indians to work in the mines and plantations and provide professional expertise. Although many of them returned to their respective home countries after their agreed tenure ended, some remained in Malaysia and settled permanently. Over time, Malaya became the world's largest producer of tin, rubber, and palm oil. These three commodities along with other raw materials firmly set Malaysia's economic tempo well into the mid-20th century. As Malaya moved towards independence, the government began implementing economic five-year plans, beginning with the First Malayan Five Year Plan in 1955. Upon the establishment of Malaysia, the plans were re-titled and renumbered, beginning with the First Malaysia Plan in 1965.
Post-independence
In the 1970s, Malaysia began to imitate the four Asian Tiger economies (South Korea, Taiwan, the then British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, and Singapore) and committed itself to a transition from being reliant on mining and agriculture to an economy that depends more on manufacturing. In the 1970s, the predominantly mining and agricultural based Malaysian economy began a transition towards a more multi-sector economy. Since the 1980s the industrial sector has led Malaysia's growth. High levels of investment played a significant role in this. With Japanese investment, heavy industries flourished and in a matter of years, Malaysian exports became the country's primary growth engine. Malaysia consistently achieved more than 7% GDP growth along with low inflation in the 1980s and the 1990s.Central planning has been a major factor in the Malaysian economy, as government expenditure was often used to stimulate the economy. Since 1955, with the commencement of the First Malayan Five Year Plan, the government has used these plans to intervene in the economy to achieve such goals as redistribution of wealth and investment in, for instance, infrastructure projects.
A legacy of the British colonial system was the division of Malaysians into three groups according to ethnicity. The Malays were concentrated in their traditional villages, focusing mainly on agricultural activities, while the Chinese dominated Malaysian commerce. Educated Indians took up professional roles such as those of doctors or lawyers, while the less better-off worked the plantations. Chinese businesses in Malaysia developed as part of the larger bamboo network, a network of overseas Chinese businesses operating in the markets of Southeast Asia that share common family and cultural ties. The Reid Commission which drafted the Malaysian Constitution made a provision for limited affirmative action through Article 153, which gave the Malays special privileges, such as 60% of university entrance (quota). However, after the May 13 incident of racial rioting in the federal capital of Kuala Lumpur, the government initiated more aggressive programmes aimed at actively establishing a Malay entrepreneurial class through direct intervention in the economy, aimed at alleviating poverty. This was done with the controversial New Economic Policy (NEP). Its main objective was the elimination of the association of race with economic function, and the first five-year plan to begin implementing the NEP was the Second Malaysia Plan. The success or failure of the NEP is the subject of much debate, although it was officially retired in 1990 and replaced by the National Development Policy (NDP). Recently much debate has surfaced once again concerning the results and relevance of the NEP. Some have argued that the NEP has indeed successfully created a Middle/Upper Class of Malay businesspeople and professionals.
Despite some improvement in the economic power of Malays in general, the Malaysian government maintains a policy of discrimination that favours ethnic Malays over other races—including preferential treatment in employment, education, scholarships, business, access to cheaper housing and assisted savings. This special treatment has sparked envy and resentment amongst non-Malays. The ethnic Chinese control of the locally owned sector of the country's economy has been ceded largely in favour of the bumiputra/Malays in many essential or strategic industries such as petroleum retailing, transportation, agriculture and automobile manufacturing.
Current GDP per capita grew 31% in the Sixties and 358% in the Seventies, but this proved unsustainable and growth scaled back sharply to 36% in the Eighties. It rose again to 59% in the Nineties led primarily by export-oriented industries. This increase in GDP was brought about due to a shift from the traditional agricultural and resource based economy to one based on manufactured goods. From 1988 to 1996, Malaysia's economy expanded at 8 per cent, the second fastest after China, resulting in manufactured goods such as microchips and semiconductors making up 80 per cent of exports. Per capita income doubled from 1990 to 1996. Infrastructure projects were greatly increased in this time. Other countries looked to Malaysia at the time as an example for economic reform.
The rate of poverty in Malaysia also fell dramatically over the years. However, its precipitous drop has been questioned by critics who suggest that the poverty line has been drawn at an unreasonably low level. The rapid economic boom led to a variety of supply problems. Labour shortages soon resulted in an influx of millions of foreign workers, many illegal. Cash-rich PLCs and consortia of banks eager to benefit from increased and rapid development began large infrastructure projects.
As of 2006, the most recent five-year plan is the Ninth Malaysia Plan. The five-year plans have been criticised for resembling the central planning of Soviet communism; the five-year time frame has been attacked for being insufficient in dealing with short-term crises and long-term trends.The effectiveness of the plans has also been disputed; at the beginning of 2005, the last year of the Eighth Malaysia Plan, almost 80% of the funds allocated under the plan had not been disbursed.
Tiger economy
Macro-economic trend
This is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Malaysia at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of Malaysian Ringgit.| Year | GDP (in millions) 35567980 |
Exchange (1 USD to MYR) |
Inflation Index (2005=100) |
Nominal Per Capita GDP (as % of USA) |
PPP Per Capita GDP (as % of USA) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 54,285 | 2.17 | 47 | 14.78 | 19.19 |
| 1985 | 78,890 | 2.48 | 60 | 11.44 | 19.33 |
| 1990 | 119,082 | 2.70 | 65 | 10.47 | 20.87 |
| 1995 | 222,473 | 2.50 | 79 | 15.69 | 27.02 |
| 2000 | 343,216 | 3.80 | 92 | 11.47 | 26.01 |
| 2005 | 494,544 | 3.78 | 100 | 12.67 | 26.67 |
| 2010 | 765,966 | 3.04 | 113 | 17.81 | 31.03 |
From 1988 to 1997, the economy experienced a period of broad diversification and sustained rapid growth averaging 9% annually.
By 1999, nominal per capita GDP had reached $3,238. New foreign and domestic investment played a significant role in the transformation of Malaysia's economy. Manufacturing grew from 13.9% of GDP in 1970 to 30% in 1999, while agriculture and mining which together had accounted for 42.7% of GDP in 1970, dropped to 9.3% and 7.3%, respectively, in 1999. Manufacturing accounted for 30% of GDP (1999). Major products include electronic components – Malaysia is one of the world's largest exporters of semiconductor devices – electrical goods and appliances.
During the same period, the government tried to eradicate poverty with a controversial race-conscious positive program called New Economic Policy (NEP). First established in 1971 following race riots, commonly known in Malaysia as the May 13 Incident, it sought to eradicate poverty and end the identification of economic function with ethnicity. In particular, it was designed to improve the distribution of wealth among the country's population.. The NEP ostensibly ended in 1991, however the policies persist in the form of other programmes such as the National Development Policy. The policies are enforced overtly through race-based quotas for low-cost housing units, university placement, business equity ownership, etc.
Rapid growth was achieved partly through privatisation of inefficient state owned enterprises, thus subjecting them to commercial pressures and forcing them to better utilise their resources. Many deals were done behind closed doors and put through rather quickly. In one example Khazanah Nasional alienated shares in DRB Hicom to Mega Consolidated. This led to such deals being labelled mega projects.
Foreign funds were attracted to invest making the local money market and bourse liquid. This created opportunity for local businesses to raise capital on the KLSE, and carry out infrastructure development in areas like telecommunications, highways and power generation to meet bottlenecks caused by rapid industrialisation. An intense labor shortage created employment for millions of foreign workers. Subsequent events show that more than 50% were illegal.
The influx of foreign investment led to the KLSE Composite index trading above 1,300 in 1994 and the Ringgit trading above 2.5 in 1997. At various times the KLSE was the most active exchange in the world, with trading volume exceeding even the NYSE. The stock market capitalisation of listed companies in Malaysia was valued at $181,236 million in 2005 by the World Bank.
Some of the more visible projects from that period are Putrajaya, a new international airport (Kuala Lumpur International Airport), a hydroelectric dam (Bakun dam), the Petronas Towers and the Multimedia Super Corridor. Proposals that were eventually canceled include the 95 km Sumatra–Malaysia bridge (would have been world's longest), the Mega International Sea and Air port on reclaimed land in Kedah (would have been world's biggest) and the KL Linear City (would have been the world's longest mall and the world's first city built over a river).
Concerns were raised during the time about the sustainability of the rapid growth and the ballooning current account. The mainstream opinion prevalent at that time was that the deficit was temporary and would reverse once imported equipment started producing for export. In spite of that, measures were taken to moderate growth especially when it threatened to overheat into the double digits. The main target was asset prices, and restrictions were further tightened on foreign ownership of local assets. Exposure of local banks to real estate loans were also capped at 20%.
As was widely expected, the current account deficit did narrow steadily, year to year, from 9% to 5% of GDP.
Malaysia has the largest operational stock of industrial robots in the Muslim world.
Asian financial crisis and recovery
Further information: Asian
financial crisis
The year 1997 saw drastic changes in Malaysia. There was speculative
short-selling of the Malaysian currency, the ringgit. Foreign direct investment fell at an
alarming rate and, as capital flowed out of the country, the value of the
ringgit dropped from MYR 2.50 per USD to, at one point, MYR 4.80 per USD.The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange's
composite index fell from approximately 1300 to nearly merely 400 points in a
few short weeks. After the controversial sacking of finance minister Anwar Ibrahim, a National
Economic Action Council was formed to deal with the monetary crisis. Bank Negara
imposed capital
controls and pegged the Malaysian ringgit at 3.80 to the
US dollar. In addition, it also fully suspended the trading of CLOB (Central
Limit Order Book) counters, indefinitely freezing approximately US$4.47 billion
worth of shares and affecting 172,000 investors, most of them Singaporeans.Malaysia refused economic aid packages from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, surprising many analysts. By refusing aid and thus the conditions attached thereof from the IMF, Malaysia was not affected to the same degree in the Asian Financial Crisis as Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Regardless, the GDP suffered a sharp 7.5% contraction in 1998. It however rebounded to grow by 5.6% in 1999. The Government of Malaysia predicted 5.8% real GDP growth in the year 2000, but most analysts predicted growth will exceed 8% for the year.
In order to rejuvenate the economy, massive government spending was made and Malaysia continuously recorded budget deficits in the years that followed. Economic recovery has been led by strong growth in exports, particularly of electronics and electrical products, to the United States, Malaysia's principal trade and investment partner. Inflationary pressures remained benign, and, as a result, Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank, had been able to follow a low interest rate policy. The Malaysian economy recovered from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis sooner than neighbouring countries, and has since recovered to the levels of the pre-crisis era with a GDP per capita of $14,800.
The post Y2K slump of 2001 did not affect Malaysia as much as other countries. This may have been clearer evidence that there are other causes and effects that can be more properly attributable for recovery. One possibility is that the currency speculators had run out of finance after failing in their attack on the Hong Kong dollar in August 1998 and after the Russian ruble collapsed. (See George Soros)
The fixed exchange rate was abandoned on July 21, 2005 in favour of a managed floating system within an hour of China announcing the same move. In the same week, the ringgit strengthened a percent against various major currencies and was expected to appreciate further. As of December 2005, however, expectations of further appreciation were muted as capital flight exceeded USD 10 billion. According to Bank Negara's published figures, Malaysia's foreign exchange reserves increased steadily since the initial capital flight, from USD75.2 billion as at 15 July 2005 (just before the peg was removed) to peak at USD125.7 billion as at 31 July 2008, a few months before the global credit crisis that started in September 2008. As at 29 May 2009, the reserves stood at USD88.3 billion. In spite of the large positive current account surplus, foreign reserves have started to fall at a rapid rate. Official statistics released in March 2006, confirmed capital flight of more than US$10 billion. However, as of the 4th fiscal year, a surge of FDI has pushed the KLSE above 1200 points, and is expected to strengthen to pre 1997 levels.
In March 2005, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published a paper on the sources and pace of Malaysia's recovery, written by Jomo K.S. of the applied economics department, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. The paper concluded that the controls imposed by Malaysia's government neither hurt nor helped recovery. The chief factor was an increase in electronics components exports, which was caused by a large increase in the demand for components in the United States, which was caused, in turn, by a fear of the effects of the arrival of the year 2000 (Y2K) upon older computers and other digital devices.
In September 2005, Sir Howard J. Davies, director of the London School of Economics, at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, cautioned Malaysian officials that if they want a flexible capital market, they will have to lift the ban on short-selling put into effect during the crisis. In March 2006, Malaysia removed the ban on short selling. It is interesting to note that some of the measures taken by the Malaysian government in response to the Asian crisis, such as the ban on short selling, were swiftly adopted by the very countries that had previously been critical of the Malaysian response.
Regardless of cause and effect claims, rejuvenation of the economy also coincided with massive government spending and budget deficits in the years that followed the crisis. Later, Malaysia enjoyed faster economic recovery compared to its neighbours. The country has recovered to the levels of the pre-crisis era – as an example, the KLCI Composite Index hit an all-time high of 1,386 on 20 June 2007 which is approximately 100 points higher than the pre-crisis record of 1,275 in 1993. While the pace of development today is not as rapid, it is seen to be more sustainable. Although the controls and economic housekeeping may or may not have been the principal reasons for recovery, there is no doubt that the banking sector has become more resilient to external shocks. The current account has also settled into a structural surplus, providing a cushion to capital flight. Asset prices are generally back to their pre-crisis heights, despite the effects of the global financial crisis. As of 21 May 2007, the Ringgit touched a nine-year high record at 3.39 against the US dollar. Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz says the Ringgit moves up on its own merit and in line with the Malaysian economy and not in tandem with the Chinese Yuan. Malaysia has shown the ability to absorb the crude oil price increases and most economies have shown high resilience in absorbing higher energy prices. Malaysia is the world's largest Islamic banking and financial centre.
