Worry when Umno-led government says don't worry!

Malaysia’s national debt is not at a critical or worrying level, says Deputy Finance Minister Awang Adek Hussin, despite it being only two percent shy of the constitutionally allowed government borrowing limit.

During Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today Awang Adek (right) was answering a supplementary question from Saifuddin Nasution (PKR-Machang) on what the government is doing to control the rising government debt. The latter also claimed that the rising trend in national debts will soon lead to the country owing up to 100 percent of its GDP, citing financial records from 2008 onwards that exhibited rising debts year on year.

He said, "It is not at a critical level at the moment. Our limit or threshold is 55 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we are now at 53 percent. So you don’t have to worry about it."

Awang Adek argued, saying that as a responsible government, they will never allow expenditures and borrowings to exceed the set threshold.

 

He said, “We have the threshold at 55 percent, which we shall not pass. If we don’t pass 55 percent then we will never reach 100 percent.”