The economy, stupid
Playtime’s over for Team Anwar.
Happy New Year, everyone. First newsletter of 2025. This week has been particularly productive for me.
No, it wasn’t a jibe at national oil company Petronas, which is reviewing its “productivity”, corporate speak for salary freezes and layoffs or voluntary separation schemes. Just another day in the lanyard life.
But in case you missed them, there was a Year 1 reflection (un-paywalled) and a founder’s report which were out on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
You’re reading a paid version of The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power by writer and journalist Emmanuel Samarathisa.
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Anwar Ibrahim begins 2025 on slightly better footing than last year. The PM’s popularity increased four points to 54% in 2024 compared to 50% the year before, per data from Merdeka Centre, a pollster.
The country is also in a much better position. The ringgit ended on a much better note than in the beginning of 2024 against the US dollar, up 2.82% by the end of 2024.
Malaysia approved investments for the first nine months of last year to the tune of RM254.7 billion, or 77% of 2023’s record high of RM329.5 billion.
Even the stock market is buzzing. Malaysia closed the year with 55 listings, across all three bourse markets. The last time IPOs crossed the 50 mark was in 2005, where the bourse registered 79 listings.
Anwar’s down-to-earth approach of mingling with people at the warung endears him to voters, especially the Malays.
His jet-setting is sending signals that he means business and has taken a personal interest in reviving the country’s economy.
Despite the many attempts to cast the government as unstable, Anwar was able to hold together multiple and, at times, seemingly conflicting interests. He has outlasted PMs since 2018.
Overall, there’s a sense that under Anwar, Malaysia’s image is improving, according to political observers I spoke to for today’s brief.
But there remains a general unease over the economy. Based on Merdeka Centre’s findings, 53% still believe we’re heading in the wrong direction with the majority citing economic concerns, including inflation.
