JOHOR BARU: Malaysia's international reserves currently stands at RM429.76 billion and bankruptcy is not possible as the country's financial rating is A- by Standard & Poor's, which is a very strong rating.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysia was better off in its financial stature and management than many other countries and this fact must be drummed up and spread repeatedly by members of the ruling party.
He said even with foreign exchange losses that occurred in the past, as revealed in the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Bank Negara Malaysia's foreign exchange (forex) losses in the 1990s, Malaysia continued to be out of any possibility of bankruptcy.
"In 1997, we suffered losses in half of our international reserves, but we did not go bankrupt.
"Our current international reserves stand at more than RM400 billion, so how can we go bankrupt? Our financial rating stands at A-, and there are not many countries that share that rating," he said when opening the Johor Baru Umno division meeting at a hotel here today.
Najib compared Malaysia's strong financial stature today with that of the period when the forex losses were recorded by BNM.
He said the ongoing RCI revealed that international reserve losses was between RM31 billion to RM33 billion, which is half of the RM60 billion international reserves at that period in 1990s.
Najib said the opposition was creating a perception that country can go bankrupt to erode the people's confidence towards government and the ruling party Barisan Nasional.
He said this can be seen when the opposition is resorting to the psychological warfare tactic of 'If you cannot convince them, confuse them'.