Below is a time chart of Malaysia's stock market index, the KLCI. The annotation shows that the lowest point was on September 1st 1998, in the depth of the Asian Financial Crisis. In a later post I will add other indexes in the region to compare relative performance of Malaysia in light of increasing global uncertainty driven by a weak China, strong dollar, and the commodity price slump. But the purpose of this is to challenge calls for extraordinary policy action by the central bank (BNM) such as to reinstate capital controls to limit draw-downs by foreign investors in the Malaysian stock market to slow the ringgit's depreciation.
Data source: Yahoo Finance.
Note: The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index comprises of the largest 30 companies by full market capitalization on Bursa Malaysia's Main Board. When launched, on July 6, 2009 it replaced the Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index starting at the closing value of the KLCI Index on July 3 2009, also inheriting the full history of the KLCI Index.
Below I compare China's Shanghai Composite index to the KLCI by indexing each market to 100 on January 3rd, 1995. Each point thereafter is therefore comparing each market's performance relative to early 1995.
Malaysia at a Crossroads: Diagnosing Constraints to High-Income Status In 2008, Malaysia was recognized by the Growth Commission – a distinguished panel comprising 2 Nobel Prize Winning Economists and other leading development practitioners – as one of thirteen countries that sustained high growth in the post-war period. The 30-year stretch that caught the attention of the Growth Commission was between 1967 and 1997 when Malaysia grew at an average of 7.3% per year. This long stretch of growth was interrupted by periods of external shocks including the Volcker shock of 1986, the Asian Financial crisis in 1997/8, later the so-called Dot Com Bubble of 2001, and more recently the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. Despite these shocks, Malaysia remained resilient - formally earning the title "Upper Middle Income Country" in 1992. (See summary figure that breaks down the country's per capita growth story). As...
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