Malaysia’s PM Anwar to present Budget 2023 on Feb 24

[KUALA LUMPUR] The Malaysian government will present Budget 2023 on February 24 next year, according to a schedule listed on the parliament’s website on Thursday (Dec 29).

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is also Finance Minister, will deliver the new budget plan that day, with the entire process – the budget presentation and the parliament debate – expected to take 21 days.

In October, then-finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz presented a RM372.3 billion (S$113.4 billion) budget, but it was never approved as parliament was soon dissolved ahead of the general election that took place in November.

After he took office, Anwar had said he would review this previous Budget, indicating that most of the proposals would remain.

He has ordered a review of the government’s subsidies programme, which looks to channel money towards lower-income households. The new Budget is expected to include RM2 billion in cash aid to benefit nine million citizens. In all, Malaysia is likely to spend close to RM78 billion in subsidies in 2023.

Separately on Thursday, the Department of Statistics Malaysia announced that the country’s producer price index (PPI), which measures the prices of goods at the factory gate, saw growth easing to 3.2 per cent year-on-year in November, from 4 per cent in October.

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The department’s chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said November’s PPI was weighed down by the agriculture, forestry and the fishing sector, which has seen a double-digit decline for five straight months. This sector contracted to -18.5 per cent last month, from -18.2 per cent in October.

Other sectors remained robust, with manufacturing seeing growth of 6.2 per cent, followed by water supply (4.2 per cent), mining (2.4 per cent) and the electricity and gas supply sector (1.4 per cent).

On a monthly comparison, PPI local production increased 0.6 per cent in November, compared with 0.1 per cent in the previous month. This was driven by improved performance in the agriculture, forestry and fishing index, which recorded an increase of 5.5 per cent.

From January to November, PPI local production saw an increase of 8.1 per cent, compared to 9.4 per cent during the same 11-month period last year.