RM7bil spending

Nov 5, 2008, KUALA LUMPUR: A total of RM7bil will be spent by the Government in its stimulus package to boost the country’s economy in the face of the global financial crisis.

Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in announcing the package which he termed as a policy response to the crisis, said the Government was adopting an expansionary policy.

The money is to be spent on a wide range of projects, from the LRT to repairing of houses belonging to the poor.

Among the major announcements in Najib’s winding-up reply in Parliament yesterday were:

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year expected to be at least 5% while the GDP for next year is estimated to be 3.5%. Update: GDP may grow below 3% next year (http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/3/business/2705054&sec=business)
  
• The inflation rate expected to drop next year to between 3% and 4%, provided crude oil prices continued to fall.
• Contributors allowed to reduce their EPF contribution by three percentage points to 8%, so that they will have more money to spend.
• Civil servant car loans increased by RM10,000.
• Religious, missionary, Chinese and Tamil schools to get RM200mil as aid.
• Open tender system will be practised in the sale of government land and in government procurement.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/11/5/nation/2459309&sec=nation

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