Malaysia’s Anwar announces cash handouts in bid to ease living costs | Business and Economy News

Malaysian chief additionally says petrol costs might be minimize and freeway toll charges frozen to deal with price of dwelling considerations.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has introduced a package deal of measures geared toward easing the price of dwelling, together with a 100 ringgit ($24) money handout for all grownup residents.

In a televised tackle on Wednesday, Anwar mentioned the help would profit 22 million Malaysians and be redeemable at greater than 4,000 shops from August 31 to December 31.

Anwar mentioned the federal government would additionally cut back the value of subsidised petrol from 2.05 ringgit per liter (2.6 gallons) to 1.99 ringgit per liter for residents, and freeze deliberate hikes in toll charges on 10 highways.

An additional public vacation can even be scheduled for 15 September this 12 months to coincide with Malaysia Day, the vacation marking federation, Anwar mentioned.

“Malaysian households, particularly these within the low and middle-income teams, will welcome the cost-of-living aid offered by the measures,” Yeah Kim Leng, an economics professor at Sunway College in Kuala Lumpur, instructed Al Jazeera.

Lavanya Venkateswaran, senior economist at Oversea-Chinese language Banking Corp, mentioned the measures are line with authorities efforts to help progress, which she mentioned is forecast to sluggish from an annualised 4.4 p.c within the first half of 2025 to three.5 p.c within the second half.

“The fiscal package deal introduced at present, taken along with the central banks’ 25bps price minimize earlier in July, means that the authorities are stepping up counter-cyclical insurance policies,” Venkateswaran instructed Al Jazeera.

Venkateswaran mentioned the money handouts would help family consumption “on the margin” and have a comparatively nominal price of 0.1 p.c of gross home product.

Anwar’s announcement comes days earlier than a deliberate rally in Kuala Lumpur to demand his resignation over rising dwelling prices and his alleged failure to implement promised reforms.

Police have mentioned they count on as much as 15,000 individuals to attend Saturday’s protest organised by the opposition Perikatan Nasional coalition.