Policy flip-flops, wary investors: can Lim Guan Eng prove his mettle in Mahathir’s Malaysia?
The freshly minted finance minister has had to allay concerns about his credentials while jousting with defeated leader Najib Razak, all while investors and detractors foreign and domestic await his inaugural budget
Four months into his job, Malaysia’s new finance minister Lim Guan Eng continues to find his in-tray full to the brim – with top priorities including a need to allay concerns about his own economic credentials to overseas investors and domestic detractors. With Lim completing a whistle-stop Hong Kong visit last week to assuage hawk-eyed investors in the city, analysts say they are satisfied with his performance, after initial worries he was fumbling in the hot seat once held by the defeated prime minister Najib Razak.
While questions remain over the trajectory of Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy beyond the medium term, Lim will be able to prove his mettle when he delivers his inaugural budget on November 2, the analysts say.
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The finance chief, a trained accountant and a former chief minister of the state of Penang, faced questions over his fit for the job soon after his appointment in May, as he revealed the country’s debt level was far higher than scandal-tainted Najib had let on before the May 9 election.
When a brief sell-off of the ringgit and equities ensued after the polls, some, including Najib, characterised the episode as evidence Lim was a rookie in the world of macroeconomic management.
In Hong Kong, Lim told journalists on the sidelines of the CLSA Investors’ Forum that he remained unapologetic for being forthright about the state of the economy – a far cry from the “fairy tales” he said Najib had told the people during his nine years in power.
