Friday, February 20, 2009

RTRS-ANALYSIS-Malaysia stimulus seen too little, too late

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Malaysia's attempts to boost its faltering economy will likely fail as the drag of falling demand for its main exports of electronics, commodities and oil is too large for any domestic expansion programme to offset.
"I do not think we should expect much out of this (second) package," said Mohamed Ariff, executive director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), an influential think-tank.
The government has not signaled how big the second package will be, saying only it will be larger than the first, but analysts predict it will be worth around 7 billion-10 billion ringgit ($1.92 billion-$2.74 billion).