Source: Statistics Department
Hey, let’s do the limbo rock
Limbo lower now
Limbo lower now
How low can you go
Reality has just smacked us in the face.
GDP fell by 6.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year. (In the last quarter of 2008, GDP grew by 0.1 per cent, year on year.)
This is the first time we are in negative territory since 2001 and it’s the worst performance since the Asian economic crisis.
Manufacturing fell a staggering 17.6 per cent, largely due to our unwise over-dependence on FDI-driven economic growth, especially in the electronics sector.
The electronics and electrical manufacturing sector contracted by a whopping 27.3 per cent.
Overall exports and imports dropped by 15.2 per cent and 23.5 per cent respectively. The drop in imports is significant, as they were mainly in capital and intermediate goods, reflecting possible lower future investment in manufacturing.
Many are now talking up the prospect of a recovery in the second half of 2009, but it is more likely that the economy will be listless for the next couple of years or so because of our dependence on export demand. Remember, the biggest consumers, the Americans, are in bad shape.
Time to look at more sustainable development, don’t you think? Why not look at boosting food self-sufficiency and spurring small localised economic activity, rather than always going for the big projects and multi-billion ringgit investments aimed at the export market?
Put differently, we need to look at sustainable production by the masses for the masses to meet local needs rather than mass production by a few (big-time investors) for the export market.
By the way, don’t you think Abdullah Badawi was smart to hand over the finance portfolio to Najib when he did? He probably could see this coming!
I’ve wondered if Najib’s 1Malaysia concept would be as far reaching, to help the small man improve his business acumen and skills. That kind of generosity never existed. There is not even proper allocation of space for the small man to do his business in a dignified way…otherwise we will not see illegal stalls cluttering up our roads….Would the rich business tycoon,help out? Well we have high sounding names like YTL and Vincent Tan who would not lift their big fingers to help spread their talents to include the small man by broadening their scope of business enterprises. they could help spearhead the cause of the small businesses..but will they? They will not want to drain off their profits, oh no!
Just look at the great divide between the rich and the poor…so huge, I do not have statistics, but it is so clear to see if you look around. Monster cars on the roads, showing off but only owned by the rich and the famous. This is what the BN government has been promoting…a few rich,their lives made simple by a huge army of eager beaver workers helping their masters to fill their pockets by aiding and abetting…. The top notches and their cronies….
Don’t be idealistic and caring Anil….the pace has been set and the rich are not going to spur the small man to get himself an income even a quarter of the amount the rich are garnering for themselves, to splash about in travel, high living.plush houses, enormous appetites in five and six star hotels. Gosh and I see beggars, children included going about selling and begging you to buy, at even mid-night. Just go and sit for a teh tarik in Brickfields and you’ll see the scenario of the rich exploiting the poor.
We need another government to help redress economic wrongs…exactly what the Raayat also want and will have…God bless our efforts.
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My view is the BN govt is just buying time by lying about how good the economy is. When they cant hide the true facts anymore, they will create positive scenarios to pacify us malaysians, like the economy will recover in the third quarter and so on and so forth. All this are b….. Our economy will be one of the last to recover….only after US, Europe, Japan, China recovers.
I think the RM60B stimulus package will be like throwing a coin in the sea. Looks like part of it will go to the PKFZ bailout fund.
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I keep hearing this idiotic ad on the radio telling me to buy local. What local is there to buy? Eggs? Milk? Rice? Are there clothes out there not made in China? Can I buy a foreign-made house? Another dumb BN ad produced by crony ad companies that teaches me absolutely nothing!
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local fruits & fish r very mahal too !!
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