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Reasonably robust expansion of 5% helps keep alive PM Najib's claim he can cut budget deficit to 4% of GDP this yearKuala LumpurMALAYSIA'S third quarter registered stronger growth of 5 per cent in real gross domestic product (GDP) terms, up from the 4.self storage4 per cent registered in the previous quarter and roughly in line with government forecasts for the whole year.Released by Malaysia's central bank yesterday, the figures revealed that the country grew by 4.53 per cent during the first nine months of the year, in line with the government's forecast of between 4.5 per cent and 5 per cent for the whole year.The reasonably robust growth helps keep alive Prime Minister Najib Razak's claim that he can cut the country's budget deficit to 4 per cent of GDP this year.Total federal government debt is expected to hit 54.8 per cent of GDP this year - close to the 55 per cent mandated debt ceiling - but the government has avoided ratings downgrades by keeping the deficit in check.Mr Najib had done this by keeping growth on the boil through his Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), an enormously ambitious capacity-building exercise that is largely private-investment driven. So far it is working.The central bank said that domestic demand was the key driver of growth coming in at 8.3 per cent compared to 7.4 per cent in the second quarter.A mild global economic recovery also saw exports turning around to grow by 1.7 per cent versus a contraction of 5.2 per cent in the previous quarter.The ETP has been generating momentum. Private investment grew by 15.2 per cent (12.7 per cent in the second quarter) driven by capital spending in the services and manufacturing sectors, as well as oil and gas pr迷利倉jects.Putrajaya had also assured international investors that there would be no deficit on the country's current account of its balance of payments. It proved to be right.The current account surplus in the third quarter rose to RM9.8 billion (S$3.8 billion) compared to RM2.6 billion in the second quarter. Indeed, the surplus for the first nine months clocked in at RM21.2 billion.Even accounting for a net deficit of RM11.5 billion on the nation's financial account, the central bank said that the overall balance in the third quarter was in surplus amounting to RM11.8 billion from a mere RM1.5 billion in the second quarter.Total foreign direct investment for the nine months rose 8.7 per cent year-on-year to RM27.6 billion.Interestingly, reverse investment by Malaysian firms overseas for the nine months rose 6.7 per cent year-on-year to RM35.7 billion.More than 75 per cent of the amount, however, came from the oil and gas sector (Petronas' investment in Canada's shale gas) and the finance sector (Malaysian banks expanding regionally).Meanwhile, the international reserves of the central bank as at end-September rose to almost US$136 billion, enough to finance over nine months of retained imports.Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank, seemed to indicate that monetary policy would remain easy. It has maintained its overnight policy rate of 3 per cent for more than 16 months now, a rate that it said "remained supportive of economic activity".Bank Negara was bullish on the economy going forward, saying that both domestic demand and the gradual recovery in the global economy would support growth. "The economy is therefore expected to remain on its steady growth trajectory," it concluded.迷你倉