![\"http:\/\/buletinonline.net\/http:\/\/buletinonline.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Bank-Negara-Malaysia.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/buletinonline.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Bank-Negara-Malaysia.jpg\")
LUXEMBOURG: Malaysia\u2019s central bank governor said today the country faced rising inflation risks while high energy prices and the impact of the euro zone debt crisis on the global economy could threaten growth.<\/p>\nLUXEMBOURG: Malaysia\u2019s central bank governor said today the country faced rising inflation risks while high energy prices and the impact of the euro zone debt crisis on the global economy could threaten growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cInflation risks are on the upside, but growth risks are on the downside,\u201d Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said in an interview with Reuters at an Islamic banking conference here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a risk of higher inflation. This is a global phenomenon where you have higher commodity and energy prices that are translating into higher food and fuel prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something we monitor closely. Right now our assessment is that it is still within the range that we have forecast, which is in the band of 2.5% to 3.5%,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Asked whether Malaysia\u2019s policymakers considered raising the bank\u2019s inflation forecasts at its last meeting, she said: \u201cNot at this stage. Although the risks were there, there was not enough information to do so now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bank Negara raised benchmark interest rates to 3% in April from 2.75%. Analysts see policy being
tightened by a further 25 to 50 basis points in the second half of this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecently we raised our interest rate to 3%, but at 3% we still see it as very supportive of growth,\u201d Zeti said.<\/p>\n
On the outlook for growth, Zeti said the bank had not altered its view that GDP will rise by between 5% and 6% annually for the next \u201cfew years\u201d.<\/p>\n
The economic impact on Malaysia of Japan\u2019s March earthquake and tsunami was expected to be limited she said, while the effect of Middle East tensions would be negligible.<\/p>\n
Those combined with elevated energy and commodity prices and the risk from the ongoing euro zone debt crisis on the global economy, however, meant the current situation was particularly hard to predict.<\/p>\n
Bank masterplan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Malaysia is due to announce a semi-overhaul of its banking system in the next few weeks, which is expected to see the government relax rules on foreign stakes in its nine banks and award up to two licences for so-called US$1 billion dollar Islamic \u201cmega-banks\u201d.<\/p>\n Zeti said the new super institutions could come about in three ways: by investors building them from scratch, existing syariah-compliant banks merging or Islamic subsidiaries of larger banks being beefed up by partnership deals.<\/p>\n Asked when the plans were expected to be finalised and whether the recent tensions in the Middle East had pushed back a likely start date, she said this year was still a realistic expectation.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the end of this year? This is something that we look for that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n On the plans to loosen the rules of bank ownership, she appeared to suggest recent indications from Malaysia\u2019s Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak that ownership could be lifted to as high as 49% from the current 30% ceiling, may be accurate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe majority ownership of our local banks will always remain as domestic because we want to achieve balanced growth,\u201d she said when asked about Najib\u2019s comment.<\/p>\n \u201cShould we allow beyond 30% then there will be very transparent criteria for cases that would be allowed to be above (30%).\u201d<\/p>\n Analysts expect the criteria to be designed to prevent private equity, hedge funds and other parts of the alternative banking world taking greater control in Malaysia.<\/p>\n Zeti said the rules would demand that new investors bring \u201cstability and something value-added\u201d. \u201cWe want to prepare ourselves for greater integration with the Asian region and the rest of the world, in particular the Middle East and Europe,\u201d she said, pointing to recent licences given to French bank BNP Paribas and banks from Abu Dhabi and Indonesia.<\/p>\n – Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LUXEMBOURG: Malaysia\u2019s central bank governor said today the country faced rising inflation risks while high energy prices and the impact of the euro zone debt crisis on the global economy could threaten growth. \u201cInflation risks are on the upside, but growth risks are on the downside,\u201d Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
She also indicated the kind of geographical DNA Malaysia was looking to attract.<\/p>\n