M'sia needs to re-strategise subsidies for less fortunate - Najib

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak believes Malaysia needs to effectively re-strategise subsidies for the less fortunate in the country.

"I agree with the World Bank that Malaysia needs to effectively re-strategise subsidies for the less fortunate," the Prime Minister said in his Twitter on Wednesday.

Najib was commenting on a Bloomberg report entitled 'Fuel Subsidies May Prevent Spending on Poorest, World Bank Says'.

The report said energy subsidies might be preventing governments from Egypt to Malaysia from spending enough on social programmes that would help the poor.

Fuel subsidies were the highest in the Middle East and North Africa, where they account for more than 4 per cent of gross domestic product, the World Bank said in a report released on Wednesday.

This was against 1 per cent of GDP spent on social safety net programes such as conditional cash transfers, the report said.