Malaysia: from economic recovery to sustained economic growth

Abstract

This paper presents an internally consistent macroeconomic framework that could be used as a first step toward a more comprehensive quantitative and qualitative assessment of the adjustment alternatives facing Malaysia. An open economy model is developed to identify which of the gaps--savings, foreign exchange, and fiscal--become the binding constraints in the adjustment process of Malaysia as it strives to sustain economic growth in the postcrisis era. Using 1995 as a base year, the model is simulated over the short and medium terms to demonstrate a sharp trade-off between investment (economic growth) and capacity utilization under foreign exchange constraints.

Keywords:

• economic growth
• foreign capital
• three-gap model