Keep economy going as ‘people need to live’, Jomo tells govt

[superadmin]

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia needs to learn and rethink basic assumptions about the economy for it to move forward and help people in distress, prominent economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram said today.

“You need to have counter-cyclical policies. And that is why I welcomed the Prihatin (economic stimulus package) when it first came out last year but it was not sustained. People need to live, they need to keep the economy going,” he said during the virtual Malaysian Economic Summit 2021 today.

“Given the nature of the economy today, you cannot depend on (the government) becoming an employer of last resort but you can become the buyer of last resort to keep the economy going to help people who are living in precarious conditions.”

Jomo was a panellist at a session titled “Will Productivity and Growth Return After the Covid-19 Pandemic? How to Strengthen the Competitiveness of the Malaysian Economy in the New Normal?”

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