He said his optimism emanated from positive indicators like the nation’s strong economic performance, as well as the country’s export value of more than RM80 billion in the first quarter of this year.
“Our currency yesterday dropped slightly to 3.90 from 3.89 (against the US dollar). InsyaAllah, in the near term it may rise to 3.80.
“In terms of currency value, ours is among the best performing currencies as several months ago the ringgit had weakened to 4.49.
“But it will surge to 3.80 soon,” he said when addressing the “Prime Minister’s 2018 Budget with People-Civil Servants” programme attended by over 5,000 people here today.
This is the fourth edition of the programme in Najib’s quest to share the country’s success stories and explain various government policies that had been and will be implemented.
Najib was greeted on arrival at the Allied Health Sciences College, Tanjung Rambutan, near here by Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abd Kadir and state secretary Abdul Puhat Mat Nayan.
The prime minister described the rating affirmation of three international bodies — Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poors — on the government administrative capability recently as not an ordinary recognition.
He said the three international rating agencies had visited the country to carry out an in-depth study in terms of facts and figures before affirming Malaysia’s rating at “A”.
“Our country rating was affirmed at “A-“, Singapore may be higher but we are in Group A, while Italy was at B, Greece was worse, and Russia at B.
“So, if people say we will go bankrupt, it is just common sense that Group B will go bankrupt first. How can A go bankrupt before B?
“During the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, our foreign reserves stood at US$20 billion, but the bankruptcy story did not surface then.
“Now, our country’s reserves are at US$103 billion, a five-fold increase from before,” he said.
Najib said the value of national loans against gross domestic product (GDP) had also declined from 54% to 50.8%.