...in a normal country, what you see is that growth is (fuelled by) domestic consumption."For domestic consumption, they are basic goods. But hypermarkets and supermarkets (in Malaysia) which control 50 percent of the grocery market are (seeing) negative (growth)."I think people just don't have the money,..in the first quarter last year, the GDP grew by 5.6 percent but retail sales shrunk by 1.2 percent and hypermarket sales contracted by 4.8 percent."That makes you wonder, how can a country grow but hypermarkets growth, which is the real basic consumption in the country, is negative.
Individual Malaysians are earning less and spending less...so, that must mean that Malaysia(or rather Malaysians) are doing economically and financially as well as the current government is telling us...
GDP(Gross Domestic Product) - that is what Najib and the UMNO-BN government has been using to show how Malaysia is doing financially and economically - but maybe, he should be telling us about GNP(Gross National Product)...
The other is GNP (gross national product), which is the same as GDP except that it adds what a country earns from overseas investments and subtracts what foreigners earn in a country and send back home.
Yes, what really is the state of affairs of Malaysia and Malaysians - minus what really belongs to 'foreigners'. The increase of production and exports of say, a Japanese or American company, really does not benefit Malaysians(or Malaysia) - government may get income from wages of Malaysian workers, import-export taxes/duties, taxation ...but that is it. GDP also looks at government expenditure - well, spending a lot while borrowing a lot if we just look at the amount of spending is also a bad indicator...Has Najib and the UMNO-BN government been increasing our debt, to increase spending ...thus pushing up GDP. See earlier posts
GDP - Is UMNO-BN borrowing to increase spending to increase GDP? Debt RM908.7 Billion, Reserves RM426Billion only?
Malaysia's Debt - RM450 billion, Singapore - Zero; Malaysia's Debt 54% of GCP, Indonesia only 24%, Singapore 0
Remember also that when the value of the Ringgit drops, in comparison to other foreign currencies, it also means that the value of Malaysian's savings (including in EPF/KWSP) also drops...YES, we are losing our own money in our savings, and blame would lie certainly in the government of the day...
When Malaysian government debt increases, then the amount of money the government have to spend annually for debt servicing increases - and less money for development and the Rakyat?
What is the monthly income of Malaysians and Malaysian families today? Remember household income, means total income of all in the households - 10 workers earning RM1,000 per month staying in a 2 room house, will make the household income RM10,000-00. Hence, we really need income statistics of individual Malaysians, and maybe also Malaysian families? But sadly such statistics seem to be not available in recent years...
Najib and the UMNO-BN government has led us to a precarious situation - and there seem to be no improvement to prevent wastages, kleptocracy, etc... TIME maybe for the people of Malaysia to do something, and maybe bring in a new government ...for after all, they say a new broom sweeps cleaner...The Opposition government in Selangor and Penang is said to have managed to make things 'cleaner' and improve matters economically (but note, they still do have some flaws and failings).
Malaysians can no longer have blind trust in the government. They need to be more vigilant and monitor continuously our governments - to make sure nothing wrong is done. We will change any government that fails to do the best for Malaysians, not just Malaysia. Changing governments is also healthy - for that returns power to the people, and political parties would have to buck up and do the best for all Malaysians - not simply enrich just some of their friends and cronnies.
Help and assistance must be given to the poorest and marginalized first...not based on ethnicity, religion or party membership.
It is most sad that some parties are lobbying support based on ethnicity and religion - we need more mature and holistic parties with concrete plans on how to improve the financial and general wellbeing of all Malaysians. Our concern also should not be for ourselves only - but we should be more concerned for the poor. We must be ready to say 'Help the poor and needy first' ...and then the rest of us....
Mydin: Strong GDP but people don't have money
The
country may be seeing rosy gross domestic product growth but consumers
don't seem to have enough money to spend on groceries, said Ameer Ali
Mydin, managing director of popular hypermarket chain Mydin.
In an interview with radio station BFM today, Ameer said this could be noticed as hypermarket sales have been seeing a continued contraction.
"I am not saying there's no growth, of course the numbers are there. But in a normal country, what you see is that growth is (fuelled by) domestic consumption.
"For domestic consumption, they are basic goods. But hypermarkets and supermarkets (in Malaysia) which control 50 percent of the grocery market are (seeing) negative (growth).
"I think people just don't have the money," he said.
Ameer said that in the first quarter last year, the GDP grew by 5.6 percent but retail sales shrunk by 1.2 percent and hypermarket sales contracted by 4.8 percent.
"That makes you wonder, how can a country grow but hypermarkets growth, which is the real basic consumption in the country, is negative.
"In the third quarter last year, Malaysia's retail industry contracted 1.1 percent. Hypermarket business dropped by five percent.
“For the fourth quarter, the numbers are not out but I can tell you retail sales will not be more than three percent and hypermarkets' numbers are going to be negative three to four percent," he said.
Ameer said based on Mydin's data, the prices of good have gone up by 14 to 15 percent in the last five years.
"When you look at individual items, it's scary. Cabbage, Cameron cabbage, it has gone up in total, my goodness, 29 percent in the last five years.
"Ikan kembung hitam, 19.5 percent. Maggi brand chilli sauce, and they claim they never increase their prices, 38.8 percent. Ayam brand sardine, they have gone up by 30.6 percent.
"And you can say six percent may be because of the goods and services tax," he told BFM.
Ameer said whether an average increase of 14 to 15 percent in five years was significant depended on how much increments in salary consumers have seen in the same period.
"Prices have gone up, so in totality, the numbers of sales are not really going up, there is negative (growth)," he said.
A silver lining, he added, was the strengthening of the ringgit against the US dollar which if sustained may see prices going down in the long run.
Mydin said businesses have also suffered from the anti-profiteering measures which were initially intended for the early days of the GST but have since been extended.
"You see the government always has noble intentions. It is a good government but they tend to use what we call an axe to come at one miserable fly," he said.
Mydin said the government, however, has been responsive about the over-regulation of prices and was now focussed on key basic items. - Malaysiakini, 5/2/2018
In an interview with radio station BFM today, Ameer said this could be noticed as hypermarket sales have been seeing a continued contraction.
"I am not saying there's no growth, of course the numbers are there. But in a normal country, what you see is that growth is (fuelled by) domestic consumption.
"For domestic consumption, they are basic goods. But hypermarkets and supermarkets (in Malaysia) which control 50 percent of the grocery market are (seeing) negative (growth).
"I think people just don't have the money," he said.
Ameer said that in the first quarter last year, the GDP grew by 5.6 percent but retail sales shrunk by 1.2 percent and hypermarket sales contracted by 4.8 percent.
"That makes you wonder, how can a country grow but hypermarkets growth, which is the real basic consumption in the country, is negative.
"In the third quarter last year, Malaysia's retail industry contracted 1.1 percent. Hypermarket business dropped by five percent.
“For the fourth quarter, the numbers are not out but I can tell you retail sales will not be more than three percent and hypermarkets' numbers are going to be negative three to four percent," he said.
Ameer said based on Mydin's data, the prices of good have gone up by 14 to 15 percent in the last five years.
"When you look at individual items, it's scary. Cabbage, Cameron cabbage, it has gone up in total, my goodness, 29 percent in the last five years.
"Ikan kembung hitam, 19.5 percent. Maggi brand chilli sauce, and they claim they never increase their prices, 38.8 percent. Ayam brand sardine, they have gone up by 30.6 percent.
"And you can say six percent may be because of the goods and services tax," he told BFM.
Ameer said whether an average increase of 14 to 15 percent in five years was significant depended on how much increments in salary consumers have seen in the same period.
"Prices have gone up, so in totality, the numbers of sales are not really going up, there is negative (growth)," he said.
A silver lining, he added, was the strengthening of the ringgit against the US dollar which if sustained may see prices going down in the long run.
Mydin said businesses have also suffered from the anti-profiteering measures which were initially intended for the early days of the GST but have since been extended.
"You see the government always has noble intentions. It is a good government but they tend to use what we call an axe to come at one miserable fly," he said.
Mydin said the government, however, has been responsive about the over-regulation of prices and was now focussed on key basic items. - Malaysiakini, 5/2/2018
Read more at https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/411197#ojF4qSXPGiVr4qub.99
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