Macroeconomics: Malaysian Sovereign Debt

As a Malaysian, nowadays we always hear that our country debt is skyrocketing. But, how and where can we obtain the latest exact figure?

First, we goto Bank Negara Malaysia website.
http://www.bnm.gov.my/

Then, "Publications & Research Paper"-> "Periodicals"-> "Monthly Statistical Bulletin" , we will see a lot of data. Let's filter out some of the important information.

3.8 External Reserve

From the above, we see that Malaysian External Reserve dropped to lowest at August 2015 and rebound back after September 2015. The rebound is due to the government rescuing effort by relocating back overseas investment assets to strengthen the country fundamental.

3.7 External Debt

As of 2010 3Q, Malaysian external debt is RM 427,023 million , while as of 2015 3Q, it has double to RM 852,864 million. Short term debt can be found at the last column "Overall external debt profile". It is about RM 373,005 million.

3.1.1 Federal Government Revenue

Federal Government Revenue records the income of government, for example corporate tax, personal tax, GST, Petroleum Tax and so on. We can see that from year 2015 to 2016, income from Petroleum Tax is decreasing, meaning that the dividend that government gets from Petronas which is much more bigger in amount is decreasing too.

3.1.4 Federal Government Debt

As of 2015 3Q, Federal Government Debt is RM 623,348 million, about 73% of total external debt. Federal Government Debt to GDP ratio always being used as an gearing ratio for a country to evaluate how much more debt the country can sustain.

3.1.5 Federal Government Debt Issued Domestically

As of 2015 3Q, it is RM 601,101 million, about 96% of total federal government debt.

3.1.6 Federal Government Debt : Classification by Currency and Remaining Maturity

As of 2015 3Q, Federal government debt in RM currency is RM 601,099 million.
We can see that Malaysian debt is skyrocketing and most of it is in RM currency.