Recently, Bait Al-Amanah’s economist Abel Benjamin Lim shared Bait Al-Amanah’s initial perspective on Budget 2022 on Consider This by Astro Awani.
Abel highlighted that the Budget 2022 is an expansionary budget with a projected decreased to 6% of GDP. With regards to the size of the budget and whether it is a bold move to rebuild Malaysia as the country recovers from the pandemic, the Budget 2022 is leaning towards a short-term approach, where priorities are on short-term relief programmes and stop-gap measures at the expense of medium to long-term sustainable growth measures. Would this then concern future generations as they will bear the burden of our increasing debt?
Generally, the Budget 2022 practices inclusivity by also reaching out to various groups. Some of the notable initiatives are mental health care, welfare for the Covid-impacted orphanages, mobile bank and clinics, PDRM investigation for sexual, women and children violence, and mother’s milk bank.
*To watch the full interview, kindly click on Astro Awani’s youtube page.