Via the Economist’s Free Exchange blog, The Brookings Institution’s Global MetroMonitor tracks performance in major cities around the world:
In the current table of rankings(2009-2010), KL ranks 23rd out of 150, up from 37th during the recession period (2007-2009), but down from 17th before the recession (1993-2007).
Get the KL page here (warning: pdf link), or the full report here.
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Dear Hisham H,
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, it seems that Donald Lim is trying to potray Hutang Negara or National debt (direct translation) as just the foreign currency denominated debt.
Wiki has this to say
"Government debt (also known as public debt, national debt)[1][2] is money (or credit) owed by any level of government; either central government, federal government, municipal government or local government. By contrast, annual government deficit refers to the difference between government receipts and spending in a single year. Debt of a sovereign government is called sovereign debt.
As the government draws its income from much of the population, government debt is an indirect debt of the taxpayers. Government debt can be categorized as internal debt, owed to lenders within the country, and external debt, owed to foreign lenders. Governments usually borrow by issuing securities, government bonds and bills. Less creditworthy countries sometimes borrow directly from supranational institutions."
What is your comment?
Is it RM 448 billion, RM 397 billion (BNM) or RM 227 billion (Najib + Donald Lim)?
Or is it the PV of 1 trillion according to Pemandu ?
Hi,
ReplyDeleteIt's a terminology problem, and one that has come up before (check here and here).
But "officially", national debt means the external liabilities of the country, both public and private, so in that context the PM and Donald Lim are technically correct.
I can understand the rationale - since domestic debt is owed by Malaysians to Malaysians, the "national" debt could with justice refer only to debt that is owed to foreigners.
But it's just confusing since everywhere else, national debt refers to public debt irrespective of creditor.
Thanks Hisham H.. you should be a YB :-)
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