Monday, 01 Mar 2021 04:24 PM MYT
In July last year, BNM reduced the OPR to 1.75 per cent, a record low since the floor was set in 2004. It has since maintained the rate. Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri
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KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is expected to maintain the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) of 1.75 per cent at the year’s second Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on March 4, amid expectations of an economic recovery, said economists.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said that high-frequency data such as exports and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicate that the economy is recovering.
KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 24): Malaysia’s January headline inflation came in better than consensus expectation, dipping 0.2% to 122.1 from 122.4 a year earlier.
The 0.2% fall in the consumer price index (CPI) as against Bloomberg and Reuters’ consensus reading of a 0.8% contraction comes after a 0.4% year-on-year decline in December 2020.
The January drop was mainly due to falls in the transport (-5.1%), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (-0.7%), clothing and footwear (-0.4%) and restaurants and hotels (- 0.1%) sub-indices which contributed 44.5% to the overall weight, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said today.
This was the 11th consecutive month that the country experienced deflation starting from March 2020 when the CPI dropped 0.2%. For 2020 as a whole, the CPI contracted 1.2%.
THE recent uptrend in crude oil prices seems to suggest that the commodity is staging a comeback. Since breaching the US$50 per barrel mark in early December last year, Brent crude has continued to climb steadily amid the continued uncertainty surrounding the virus.
On Feb 8, Brent crude climbed above US$60 a barrel for the first time in a year.
The rise in oil prices has been linked to several factors. One is undeniably propped up by the Covid-19 vaccine breakthrough last year, renewing optimism about fuel consumption, while colder winters have also helped push up prices, especially for liquefied natural gas (LNG).
5G digital malaysia
THE clock is ticking as Malaysia gears up for its public and private sectors to be fully digitalised. Notably, it took a health crisis – the Covid-19 pandemic – for the shift of mindset for some conservative businesses and also the government to accelerate the adoption of technology.
Yesterday, optimism poured over Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s announcement on the 5G internet connectivity rollout in the next ten months. Many more digital initiatives were announced by the prime minister on the official launch of MyDigital and the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint.
The MyDigital initiative outlined a comprehensive plan to transform Malaysia’s economy into a technologically-advanced one through the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint by 2030.