Malaysia’s actual development expenditure (devex) is shrinking every year despite increases in allocation under the country’s annual budgets, according to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
In a statement on Monday (Nov 6), Anwar, who also holds the finance minister post, said this finding was made in a National Economic Action Council meeting, adding that the decrease in actual devex could have a long-term impact on Malaysia’s economic growth.
No further elaboration on the meeting’s findings was disclosed in the statement.
Looking at Malaysia’s latest annual budgets, RM90 billion was allocated for devex in Budget 2024, as compared to RM97 billion in Budget 2023, RM71.57 billion in Budget 2022, RM64.26 billion in Budget 2021 and RM51.36 billion in Budget 2020.
