Malaysia's guaranteed debts at $61b or 14.7% of GDP

Asiaone Business, 19 June 2015

The Government has guaranteed debts totalling RM172bil (S$61 billion) as of last year.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also Finance Minister, said the debts guaranteed represented 14.7 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"The guarantee is given to public entities such as DanaInfra and Prasarana, which are developing and operating public transport infrastructure," said Najib in a written reply to Datuk Fauzi Abdul Rahman (PKR-Indera Mahkota).

Najib added that guarantees on debts were also given for development projects which were of public interest.

Fauzi had enquired about the Government's total debts and the letters of guarantee or letters of comfort issued by it.

On letters of support, Najib said that as of last year, they were given for loans totalling RM9.5bil.

"Repayments of the loans are good based on a fixed schedule without any outstanding," he added.

The Federal Government's debts as of June 2014 stood at RM568.9bil or 52.8 per cent of the GDP.

As of March 2015, total debts stood at RM596.8bil or 51 per cent of the GDP, which were deemed "manageable and moderate".

Of this, RM579.2bil constitutes domestic debts while RM17.6bil is foreign debts.

The Dewan adjourned sine die.

(Web source: http://business.asiaone.com/news/malaysias-guaranteed-debts-61b-or-147- gdp)