Economic Report - 5 January 2010

Foreign investors will now have more 'right choices' with the government's move to list 17 companies owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated on Bursa Malaysia in 2010. ¡°It¡¯s a very good decision for government to reduce its stake in these companies,¡± said former president of then Bursa Saham Kuala Lumpur Datuk Muhammad Salleh Majid. (Bernama)

Malaysia has moved into the third stager of economic development, says the convenor of Coalition of Services Industries Malaysia (CSIM), Yasmin Mahmood. The Malaysian economy is no more led by manufacturing sector alone but by both the manufacturing and services sectors. (Bernama)

2009 belonged to the emerging markets as Brazil, Russia, India and China solidified their position in the top 10 performing global markets in USD terms. While the Dow Jones and FTSE 100 registered an 18.8% and 37.5% gain respectively, MSCI Emerging Markets Index grew about 74.8%. Interestingly the Hang Seng Index was outperformed by Bangladesh¡¯s Dhaka Stock Exchange which registered a 65% growth. Even Singapore only made it to 8th place on the equity growth list although it gained 70.8%. (Malaysian Insider)

The Philippines hired Barclays, Deutsche and HSBC to sell as much as USD1.5bn of dollar denominated debt. The Philippines central bank has approved a sale of USD1.5bn of bonds denominated in dollars or euros and about USD500mn in yen-denominated debt. The Philippines is competing with Indonesia and Vietnam to be the first Asian nation to sell USD debt this year. (Bloomberg)

China may see 'huge' speculative inflows as overseas investors step up bets on yuan gains, making it difficult to manage liquidity, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy head of the nation¡¯s top planning agency. Loose monetary policies in developed countries, weakening USD and China¡¯s economic recovery will put renewed pressure on yuan to appreciate. (Bloomberg)