Is that a bad moon rising?

Things rise. Things fall. If you don't want to fall don't rise. Well, let it fall and it will never fall again!

Just about everything is rising in Malaysia. The wisdom is, or nearing was, I'm talking to you. Do you hear? This rising and falling don't apply to me! Why not? You see, you can do all the falling and rising. Read my lips. It won't bother me none! [Wink! Wink! Nudge! Nudge!]

There's a potent rise. No credit if you guess it's rice. No! The rates, interest rates may rise come July. So said Shamim Adam for Bloomberg. If the rates rise, what little you got gains on savings. It means, selling your car, even your house cheap to get the cash. You could buy a boat or bus, convert it into a home. So you gain more money from interests in savings to keep body and soul together. You won't be buying much and you won't care for those who want to sell you a bottle or box of effervescent air.

So what will happen? I wouldn't know. Probably nothing.

Malaysia May Raise Rates on `Generalized' Price Gains
bloomberg.com


Malaysia May Raise Rates on `Generalized' Price Gains (Update1)

By Shamim Adam

June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysia's central bank may use interest rates to tame inflation if there is a ``generalized'' increase in prices, Governor ZetiAkhtar Aziz said today.

The country faces the risk of slower economic expansion and the bank will decide at its next monetary policy meeting in July whether there's a need to change its official growth forecast for this year, she told reporters at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Kuala Lumpur.

``We'll assess very carefully what the impact of rising costs has on the general prices and if it results in generalized price increase, then interest rates may be the instrument that'll be used,'' Zeti said. ``At the same time, we'll look at what the growth outlook is and right now, there is also the risk that we may have slower growth.''

Central banks around the region have raised interest rates to quell price pressures amid record food and oil costs. Indonesia and the Philippines both raised rates on June 5, while Vietnam and India increased borrowing costs in the past week.

Bank Negara Malaysia kept its overnight policy rate at 3.5 percent for a 17th straight meeting on May 26 and isn't scheduled to review its interest-rate policy until July 25. The central bank in March forecast economic expansion of 5 percent to 6 percent this year, after growth of 6.3 percent in 2007.

Malaysia may miss the upper end of this year's economic growth forecast, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters today in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur.

Growth of 5.5 percent is ``achievable,'' rather than 6 percent, the top end of this year's forecast range, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shamim Adam in Kuala Lumpur at sadam2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 15, 2008 08:10 EDT
[FAIR USE ONLY]

It's really not that bad. 3.5% is still a pretty figure. Double that is my lucky number. In Zimbabwe, it's 785% !!! There, it's to have and to have---not to have and to have not. If in our nation of bounty, you have say RM50,000, there you can have, in a manner of speaking, you can also have "-RM50,000". There they have -1.10m tons of maize!

Maybe it's time to take a break, "pergi MAKAN ANGIN" !