I&T Penang Properties Blogs

Global Financial Crisis

The subprime troubles and the ensuing financial crisis in the US has been called the global financial storm. The crisis, which former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan described as “once in a century credit tsunami” whilst the 2008 Noble Prize Winner U.S. economist Paul Krugman said the crisis bears some resemblance to the Great Depression of the 1920’s.

The IMF has warned of a sharp slowdown in the world economy next year and forecasts that financial sector losses could total US$1.4 trillion(US$1,400,000,000,000.00) whilst as much as twenty million jobs will disappear by the end of next year as a result of the impact of the financial crisis on the global economy, according to UN’s report. The global economic downturn is expected to last two years before it slowly recovers from 2010 onwards as world economy recovery takes time. For visual illustration to the financial crisis, click here.

Malaysia Response

For Malaysia, like other countries in the world, has already felt the impact of the global financial meltdown as Malaysia’s key sectors show signs of slowdown. The Malaysian economy has been resilient in the first-half of 2008, but is increasingly being affected by the global downturn.

According to MIER, Malaysia’s economy may grow at the slowest pace in eight years in 2009 given the dismal outlook for the global economy stemming from the financial turmoil.

In response to the crisis, the Malaysia Government has already announced several measures of economic stabilisation plan ie. a)Bank deposits are guaranteed by the central bank of Malaysia until the end of 2010 and b) Inject RM5 billion into a special- purpose fund Valuecap to support the stock market etc.

To further cushion the effects of the world economy slowdown, Malaysia’s Prime Minister-in-waiting and Finance Minister Najib Tun Razak has announced the RM7 billion Economic Stimulus Package during his Budget 2009 winding-up speech in Parliament on 4th November 2008, details of the stimulus package are here and here.

Impacts on Malaysia Property Sector

Just about 6 months ago, Malaysia’s NAPIC has projected a bullish property outlook for this year. But the property landscape and market sentiments have changed in recent weeks. Recent statements by REHDA’s President as well as commentary of several property industry experts indicating that Malaysia property sectors are showing signs of softening. The weakening of market conditions has also affected the listing of two largest REITs on Bursa Malaysia.

However, the Malaysia property sector is unlikely to face similar degree of market downturn as experienced by Singapore Property Sector. Malaysian property market still remains attractive to foreign investors. Comparatively, properties in Malaysia are still among the cheapest in the region and property investment remains a solid hedge against inflation in the long term.

For property owners and investors seeking for latest update and outlook on Malaysian economy as well as the Malaysia Property Market amidst the global economy slowdown, here are the several upcoming events and seminars by Malaysia institutions of ASLI, MIER and PEPS:-

National Property Housing Summit 2008 by ASLI;
Date : 13 – 14 November 2008
Venue : Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa, Petaling Jaya

National Economic Outlook Conference 2009-2010 by MIER;
Date: 2 - 3 December 2008
Venue : Hilton Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia Property Market Outlook 2009 by PEPS;
Date : 20th January 2009
Venue : Sime Darby Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur

Update (1/1/2009) : Latest statement by PEPS’s President James Wong on Malaysia Property Market Outlook 2009, here and here.

Tags: Global financial crisis, Impacts of global financial crisis on Malaysia Property, subprime

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Malaysia Property Sector. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.