Even external international bodies, such as the World Bank, have ranked Malaysia within the top 15 economies in the world, said National Council of Professors' head economic and management cluster Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali.
He added that the World Economic Review, World Bank's ease of doing business report, as well as International Monetary Fund had also reviewed Malaysia favourably based on facts.
Prof Noor Azlan said this when asked to comment on statements in some pro-Opposition blogs claiming Malaysia was going bankrupt.
He said Malaysia recorded an average 6.4% growth from 1970 to 2011. He also pointed out that the five turns of economic slowdown experienced over a period of 40 years in Malaysia were all triggered by foreign factors.
“Therefore, we can conclude that the economy is fairly managed,” he said.
The academician said deficit and surplus figures, on its own, did not give a holistic picture of the economic health of a country.
He said between 1970 and 2011, the Government's revenue had increased by 60 times.
The GDP had also increased by 63.4 times during the corresponding period, allowing Malaysia to assume a bit more debt than before.
National Council of Professors' head of Politics, Security and International Affairs cluster Prof Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak called on politicians to stop making sweeping statements.
“We can still record a steady growth of more than 5% at a time when the European economy is shrinking and in the face of US economic uncertainties.
“We still have high employment rate, the inflation rate is below 4%, we have steady foreign investment flow and confidence in the stock market is also evident despite the dissolution of Parliament to make way for the general election,” he said.
The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia amounted to RM432.1bil as at April 15. According to Bank Negara, the reserves are sufficient to finance 9.9 months of retained imports and are 4.6 times the short-term external debt.
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