KUALA LUMPUR – The economic stimulus packages are inclusive with the primary aim of improving the quality of health services in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, easing the burden of the people, assisting businesses and restoring the country’s economy, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said, as reported on Bernama.
Deputy Finance Minister I Datuk Abd Rahim Bakri said the government had taken immediate and proactive steps by implementing the economic stimulus packages, namely the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (Prihatin), Prihatin SME+, National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) and Prihatin Supplementary Initiative Package (Kita Prihatin) totalling RM305 billion.
“The implementation of these economic stimulus packages is expected to contribute around four percentage points to the gross domestic product (GDP) growth,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
He was responding to a question from Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub (PH-Pulai) on the method of implementing the inclusive domestic economic stimulus package plan to help the country overcome the challenging economic environment throughout 2020.
Abd Rahim said that the government had also provided a six-month loan moratorium facility by banking institutions and government agencies amounting to RM100 billion to individual and business borrowers, and provided Prihatin Special Grant to micro small and medium enterprises totalling RM1.6 billion to almost 545,000 recipients to cover the affected businesses’ cash flow needs.
“The government has also reduced the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) by 125 basis points from January 2020 to 1.75% to increase consumption and investment activities, and cut the Statutory Reserve Requirement (SRR) ratio to 2% from 3% to increase liquidity in the financial system and encourage lending activities,” he added.
Read more: Various economic recovery measures in Budget 2021
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