KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia expects its fiscal deficit to widen to 4% of gross domestic product this year, the country’s finance minister said, following the unveiling of a $58 billion stimulus to counter the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy.
“Given what’s happening today… we are assuming we will end up with around 4.0 per cent deficit from the earlier 2020 Budget deficit projection of 3.2 per cent,” Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama on Friday.
His comments came shortly after Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin tabled a 250 billion ringgit ($58 billion) economic stimulus package aimed at countering the effects of the virus outbreak.
A finance ministry spokeswoman confirmed Zafrul’s remarks.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff and Liz Lee; Editing by Toby Chopra)
