BR1M to continue under Budget 2017: Johari

Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani said besides BR1M, Budget 2017 would also address issues pertaining to affordable housing under the 1Malaysia People's Housing Programme (PR1MA), the welfare of the Bottom 40 percent (B40) and Middle 40 percent (M40) income groups.

He was responding to questions on the focus points of Budget 2017 here today.

"There is a gap in terms of obtaining financing for the total purchase price of properties as banks are not providing the full financing that people want and there is a need to look into this," he told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of Bursa Malaysia-i, the world's first end-to-end Islamic investing platform by Bursa Malaysia Bhd.

He also emphasised that allocations under Budget 2017 would be based on the government's revenue.

"We will look at what is the government's anticipated revenue," he said.

Considering the state of the country's economy and global headwinds right now, he said, it was imperative that people should be more responsible for what they put on the social media as this would cause uncertainty in the market.

This was because there were many people including investors who do not understand the full picture of the Malaysian economy, he said.

"In view of the global economic slowdown, and as Malaysia is an open economy, it is affected," he said.

However, Johari pointed out that Malaysia still registered a respectable economic growth of 4.1 percent for the first six months of this year compared to other regional economies.

On concerns of the government's debt level, he said, it was still manageable as long as there is the capacity to meet the debt obligations, which were taken for infrastructure spending that could boost economic growth.

Meanwhile, in response to a question on when the arbitration with International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) would take place, Johari said he did not have the exact date yet.