Malaysia - Public finance

Malaysia's economy, heavily industrial and heavily dependent on export revenues, experienced a bump in the road when the US economy began to slow down at the end of 2000. The United States is a key trading partner for Malaysia, so as exports to the United States fell, so did Malaysia's economy. The government introduced two fiscal stimulus packages in 2001, but neither did the job; at the time, analysts suspected that GDP would grow less than 1% on the year.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates that in 2001 Malaysia's central government took in revenues of approximately $20.3 billion and had expenditures of $27.2 billion including capital expenditures of $9.4 billion. Overall, the government registered a deficit of approximately $6.9 billion. External debt totaled $44.7 billion.

The following table shows an itemized breakdown of government revenues and expenditures. The percentages were calculated from data reported by the International Monetary Fund. The dollar amounts (millions) are based on the CIA estimates provided above.