COMMENT | The Fourth Quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth figures for Malaysia which were released on Feb 16 showed a slower-than-expected growth rate of 3.0 percent.

This resulted in the Malaysian economy growing at 3.7 percent for 2023, lower than the initially projected four percent.

While economists and policymakers will debate and discuss various reasons for why this is the case - lower external demand resulting in a drop in exports and a fall in manufacturing, for example - for the people on the street, they would not be able to feel or tell the difference between a 3.7 percent and a 4.0 percent GDP growth rate.

The government needs to understand that debating and discussing the nuances of statistics, while important to those in the financial sector, has little impact on the masses and the voting population...