That has spurred more calls, including from local economists, academicians and politicians, for Bank Negara to continue holding interest rates at current levels, regardless of global interest rates — to help leveraged households and businesses, support economic growth and prevent additional pressures on cost of living inflation. In economics, no matter how much one wishes it to be true, there is no such thing as a free lunch. We have said this many times.
Last week, we discussed Bank Negara Malaysia’s (Bank Negara) decision for a more tempered path in raising interest rates in the country, breaking from the US Federal Reserve and other major central banks around the world. And there are good reasons, we believe, for this. By limiting mark-to-market losses (due to higher interest rates) for the bond holdings of banks, Bank Negara is preserving the aggregate capital buffer and, more importantly, lending capacity, of the domestic banking system. Keeping domestic interest rates low also helps put a lid on the burden of debt servicing, for leveraged households, businesses as well as the government. Household debt to gross domestic product (GDP) remains relatively high at 67.4%, while government debt and liabilities totalled RM1.5 trillion or 83% of GDP (scan the QR code below for a refresher on last week’s article).
