SHAH ALAM - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government has always strived to help the people face the rising cost of living and inflation.
After being tested by the pandemic, he said the world was now facing many new challenges including climate change, geopolitical tension and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
"The combination of all these factors is one of the reasons for the increase in the price of goods causing cost of living to rise," he said when launching the Selangor Keluarga Malaysia Aspirations (AKM) Tour here today.
He said the government had implemented various short, medium and long-term strategies which involved the cooperation of all ministries, state governments, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and the entire members of Keluarga Malaysia.
"As a result, the country’s economic growth of 8.9 per cent for the second quarter of this year is the best in Southeast Asia," he said.
As an open economy, Malaysia is not exempt from global inflationary pressure, therefore, an increase in prices of goods cannot be completely avoided, said Ismail Sabri.
"However, the country's inflation rate is at 3.4 per cent and this figure is one of the lowest in Southeast Asia," he said.
In order to reduce the inflationary pressure, he said the government had spent RM77.3 billion in subsidy allocations, the largest amount in the nation's history.
He said Malaysia's wholesale and retail trade also registered a sturdy growth year-on-year of 44 per cent to RM132.8 billion in June 2022.
"This is the highest level since 2013, with a huge jump in motor vehicle sales," he said.
Ismail Sabri said Malaysia's total trade had surpassed RM2 trillion for the first time last year, recording a 24.9 per cent increase from the previous year.
"I am confident that foreign investors will continue to invest in our country as a result of the policies implemented by the government.
"For the past nine months until June 2022, our country recorded RM74.1 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), surpassing the total annual FDI in 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018.
Ismail Sabri said that the successes proved that the country's economy is now recovering and the government continues to be committed to making the initiatives that were announced earlier a success.
"I really hope that all parties will continue to support all initiatives and programmes implemented by the government for the well-being of Keluarga Malaysia," he said.
The Prime Minister also said that to date, 400,000 jobs had been filled nationwide since the RM4.8 billion JaminKerja Initiative was launched on Feb 19. - BERNAMA