Wednesday, 24 Feb 2021 08:11 PM MYT
UOB Research said the uptrend in CPI this year will be driven by projected economic recovery amid the roll-out of vaccines that starts today, higher global commodity prices, and year-ago low base effects. Picture by Hari Anggara
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KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 Malaysia’s headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell at a slower pace of 0.2 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in January 2021 from -1.4 per cent y-o-y in December 2020, coming in lower than the -0.1 per cent estimate by UOB Global Economics & Markets Research.
With the Movement Control Order (MCO) having been implemented again, Bank Negara Malaysia’s first monetary policy committee meeting of the year will be in the spotlight this week. Although economists see a less severe economic impact from this round of MCO, they do not rule out another interest rate cut at the monetary policy committee meeting on Jan 20.
“In view of the worsening pandemic, tighter containment measures and weaker growth outlook, we have pencilled in another 25-basis-point (bps) policy rate cut. This will bring the overnight policy rate to a new low of 1.5%,” UOB Global Economics & Markets Research said in a report last Friday.
Saturday, 12 Dec 2020
Also giving the investments a boost was the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority’s (Mida) decision to set up the Project Acceleration and Coordination Unit to provide end-to-end facilitation for all projects approved to enable the timely implementation of investments in the country.
KUALA LUMPUR: UOB Malaysia is raising its full-year approved investment forecast for this year to RM138bil after the total investment approvals for January-September surpassed its initial target of RM100bil.
Global Economics & Markets Research senior economist Julia Goh said her new target was about 32% higher than the actual investments approved during the global financial crisis in 2009.