NEEDS ASSESSMENT: Zeti says the assessment on whether there is a need to change interest rates will be discussed at the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
KUALA LUMPUR: An assessment on whether there is a need to change interest rates will be made at the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting, Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said yesterday.
“We will look at future trends in inflation to see if it will moderate further,” she told reporters on the sidelines of the 26th East Asian Insurance Congress.
Zeti said the global economy’s future direction would also be taken into consideration, given that the external sector moderated significantly in the second half of this year.
To a question if the external sector’s economy slowed more than expected, she said it was already expected.
“However, for the first half of this year, the economy did better than what was expected,” she said.
Malaysia’s economy grew 5.1 per cent in the first half of this year.
On the insurance industry’s consolidation, Zeti said there had been some consolidation this year and “it is all market-driven and we do not have special policy to drive it.”
“There is a recognition that there is a need for a critical size for the industry to be sustainable and therefore the smaller insurers have been absorbed and merged,” she added. — Bernama