KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is likely to maintain a ‘wait-and-see’ stance and keep the policy rate unchanged at 3.0 per cent during its sixth Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting tomorrow, said Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart).
The bank viewed BNM “has room to calibrate its policy response given resilient domestic growth.”
“At its September meeting, the central bank maintained a neutral tone. It made a slightly more negative assessment of global growth conditions but highlighted the resilience of the domestic economy, noting that private consumption held up and the country’s diversified export structure was moderating the impact of softer global demand.
“BNM also maintained its 2019 growth forecast at 4.3-4.8 per cent,” it said in its global research yesterday.
StanChart said the 2020 Budget, announced on 11 Oct, reaffirmed the government’s resilient domestic growth view; with a projection of 4.7 per cent growth in 2019 and 4.8 per cent in 2020.
It will also watch BNM’s view on how domestic conditions have evolved since the latest meeting, given that the domestic economy’s resilience has been the primary growth driver for the past few quarters.
“Private consumption faces a high base effect in the second half of 2019 however, with credit growth showing signs of easing.
“Loans disbursed to households fell 0.8 per cent year-on-year 3mma (loan application) in August from a high of 11.1 per cent 3mma a year ago due to the ‘tax holiday,” it added. – Bernama
