By Lee Wei Lian
KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 — The Malaysian economy is expected to experience a small deceleration to 4.6 per cent this year before picking up to 5.1 per cent next year said the World Bank today.
Malaysia's GDP grew 5.1 per cent last year but the World Bank noted that the commodity prices are unlikely to increase as fast as last year and private consumption may grow more slowly due to efforts by Bank Negara to reign in household debt.
Factors in Malaysia's favour this year include a solid labour market with low unemployment and an expected acceleration of private investment from Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) projects.
"Growth in 2011 is expected to remain healthy," said World Bank Senior Economist for Malaysia Frederico Gil Sander in a presentation today.
He said that the federal government is likely to meet its target of 4.7 per cent this year and four per cent next year.
Sandar said that the government managed to improve its revenue collection last year, including its non-oil revenue but warned that the government is still to dependent on oil revenue.
He noted that the challenge for the government was to ensure that the growth in it's operational expenditure grew more slowly than its revenue.