Economy Able To Withstand External Financial Shocks

CYBERJAYA, Aug 23 (Bernama) -- The government is confident that country's economy is able to withstand any external financial shocks, including the fallout from the US credit turmoil, as local fundamentals remain strong, Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop said today.He said the policy makers also have the flexibility to manage the economy in the context of changing circumstances."We have shown through periods in our 50 years that we have always had the flexibility and creativity to manage and overcome any crisis," Nor Mohamed said."So if there some issues or problems in the external environment because of the subprime concern, we are very confident based on our track record over many decades in the 80s and 90s that we will be able to overcome that," he told reporters after witnessing the signing of an agreement between the Inland Revenue Board and Tujuan Gemilang Sdn Bhd here.According to Nor Mohamed, the country's economy has enough diversification and flexibility to withstand any temporary downturn.The minister said this in response to a question on whether the Malaysian economy was affected by the problems in the US subprime market that had caused worldwide concern that the US, and eventually the global, economy would slow down."We are not sure what is happening on Wall Street will have any effect on the main street and our exports are for the main street, not for Wall Street," he said.He added that the current sloppy stock market in the United States was just a correction of a bull market and not the beginning of a bear market.Nor Mohamed said the fundamentals of the US economy at this point of time were not affected by Wall Street, and the main street was still okay."There is no evidence to show that the US economic fundamentals have changed as a result of the subprime crisis," he said.Responding to another question, Nor Mohamed said no decision has been made on the shareholding structure of Peninsular Metro-Works Sdn Bhd, the concessionaire of the Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) project."There is no final decision yet on the structure of the company undertaking the project. We have not decided yet," he said.There has been speculation that Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) may not be participating in the project.