For at least the last two decades, a presence in China was seen by Western firms as a distinct competitive advantage over their peers. Now, all that seems to be changing. American and European suspicion of China has been rising as China seeks to control its technological destiny. For as long as China was a low-cost, low-value-added producer of basic goods, it fit into Western needs for cheap consumer products. But as China moved up the value chain and made known its intention to master and indigenise advanced technology under its Made in China 2025 policy, Western backlash followed. A China se ..read more

Kebelakangan ini Overnight Policy Rate (OPR), sering dikaitkan dengan muflis, namun ianya kurang tepat dan agak mengelirukan. Saban kali saya dah mengulas perkara ini, OPR adalah salah satu instrumen mengawal inflasi, mengawal aliran modal keluar, serta bermatlamatkan kelestarian ekonomi jangka panjang dan kualiti kehidupan serta kuasa membeli, didalam jangka masa panjang Berdasarkan kajian dan fakta, punca utama muflis, adalah gaya hidup keterlaluan, melebihi kemampuan, namun tidak dinafikan secara total ada ketikanya muflis berlaku akibat kehilangan punca pendapatan disebabkan beberapa fakto ..read more

Exactly 25 years ago last month, East Asia went through its worst financial crisis. Several countries, particularly Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines, were hit. What began as a speculative attack on the baht in July 1997, quickly spread like a contagion to the other countries.  Over the three-month period from July to October 1997, the baht fell 40%, the ringgit and Philippine peso by about 27%, the rupiah by about 40% and the won 35%, against the US dollar.  This was a serious blow for countries that have been dubbed “miracle economies”. The currency cri ..read more

The decision by Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on July 6 to increase the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points, which is the second this year after the increase in the previous MPC meeting in May, has drawn much discussion. I have participated in the discussion on the role of monetary policy tightening in curbing inflationary pressure. I find the discussion to be enriching. Most recently, the Director of Economy, Prime Minister’s Office suggested that the BNM 2009 Act be reassessed and amended such that the monetary policy implementation does not involve solely the MPC (or the BNM ..read more

Bank Negara Malaysia (Malaysia’s Central Bank) has increased the policy rate twice in succession this year by 25 basis points in May 2022 and another 25 basis points in July 2022, which brings the policy rate to currently 2.25% from 1.75% prior to the hikes. Many expect that the rate will be increased in future Monetary Policy Committee meetings in a gradual manner towards 3%. In its two press statements (in May and in July), BNM mentions that the unprecedented conditions that prevailed during the Pandemic and necessitated the low interest rate environment have abated. Thus, the hikes are esse ..read more

As we graduate from IR4.0 towards Society 5.0, one needs to pause and ponder, why are we still talking about the same old same old? For the uninitiated, Society 5.0 is defined as a human-centred society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space. What did we do wrong? Where did we go wrong? On a global stage we keep coming up with nice to see, nice to read, nice to hear jargons and blueprints with fancy names – Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development Goals and many others. Yet it is d ..read more

First of all, a loud and clear disclaimer, I am NO Shariah Scholar, I am an applied researcher in Islamic finance. My views here are personal and do not represent the official views of any institutions, including INCEIF. Any healthy comments are most welcome. This is purely a write-up for the betterment of society, no malafide whatsoever neither to blame or fault anyone. It is viral news now about how dividends from EPF Statutory Savings, 69% of the returns needs to be ‘cleansed’ via zakat or Baitulmal as these returns are from non-Shariah compliant investments. It all started when one of the ..read more

Whenever affordable housing is mentioned, it seems that it is indeed a National Agenda. It looks like we want to find a permanent and sustainable solution; reality check, we are far away from the solution. In fact, it is getting more complicated and complex. So, where did we go wrong? Is it a case of Developers and Government being ‘ethnocentric’? Trying to shove down so called ‘solutions” which they believe to be right? Trying to provide and enforce what they perceive is correct? Or, should we take a step back, think and plan collectively with inputs from the ‘demand’ side, in order to delive ..read more

Islamic banking is built on the tenets of financial inclusiveness, fair and justice. In the Malaysian context, it has been further strengthened with the Value Based Intermediation (VBI) framework, which is supposedly distinct from conventional banking. In terms of marketing and communication, terms and jargons such as Profit and Loss sharing, Risk Sharing have been thrown in to further justify and validate its so-called distinctiveness. Is what is being preached is really practised? Let us take a look at the most recent incidence, the major floods about a month ago, whereby quite a number of ..read more

“We find that analysts’ recommendation revisions that are not directly related to earnings announcements lead to stronger price reactions. This finding implies that analysts’ private research embodies more valuable information than earnings announcements. Therefore, asset management firms in Malaysia have a profit opportunity if they set up an equity research department employing qualified researchers and release their equity reports to influence investors rather than following passive investment strategies…” Read more of this study in INCEIF Knowledge Repository (IKR) (URI: https://ik ..read more