Trends and patterns of federal government spending in Malaysia

This paper reviews the growth and composition of Federal Government spending in Malaysia during the Post-New Economic Policy era, with a comprehensive approach and analytical outlook. Between 1970 and 1997 the compound annual growth rate of total government expenditure was estimated at 11.3 percent....

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Main Authors: M. Mithani, Dawood, Hassan, Sallahuddin, Chik, Abdul Razak
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Utara Malaysia 1998
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/5/1/analisis5125.pdf
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author M. Mithani, Dawood
Hassan, Sallahuddin
Chik, Abdul Razak
author_facet M. Mithani, Dawood
Hassan, Sallahuddin
Chik, Abdul Razak
author_sort M. Mithani, Dawood
collection UUM
description This paper reviews the growth and composition of Federal Government spending in Malaysia during the Post-New Economic Policy era, with a comprehensive approach and analytical outlook. Between 1970 and 1997 the compound annual growth rate of total government expenditure was estimated at 11.3 percent. During the 1970s and 1980s, a fiscal imbalance in expenditure pattern emerged as a result of excessive growth in operating expenditure against that of developing expenditure. Government spending as percentage of GNP declinedfvom 34.1 percent in 1990 to 20.3 percent in 1997. In a relative sense, this suggests that Malaysia currently has the smallest government involvement, even compared to Japan and the USA's market-oriented mixed economies. The expenditure pattern and policy of the Malaysian government reveals its real concern for the social sector development and eradication of poverty, besides sound fiscal fundamentals contained in surplus budgets in recent years. Our study, however, suggests that economizing in government spending is more important than budgetary curtailment. The government should appoint an advisory Public Expenditure Committee, and publish a 'White Paper' on spending programmes on a regular basis. The fiscal management may further be improved by incorporating 'rolling expenditure programming' in the budgetary implementation. The on-going fiscal reforms should be made more effective to establish a prudent government sector with enhanced efficiency and productivity.
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spelling uum-52010-06-14T12:08:42Z https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/5/ Trends and patterns of federal government spending in Malaysia M. Mithani, Dawood Hassan, Sallahuddin Chik, Abdul Razak HJ Public Finance This paper reviews the growth and composition of Federal Government spending in Malaysia during the Post-New Economic Policy era, with a comprehensive approach and analytical outlook. Between 1970 and 1997 the compound annual growth rate of total government expenditure was estimated at 11.3 percent. During the 1970s and 1980s, a fiscal imbalance in expenditure pattern emerged as a result of excessive growth in operating expenditure against that of developing expenditure. Government spending as percentage of GNP declinedfvom 34.1 percent in 1990 to 20.3 percent in 1997. In a relative sense, this suggests that Malaysia currently has the smallest government involvement, even compared to Japan and the USA's market-oriented mixed economies. The expenditure pattern and policy of the Malaysian government reveals its real concern for the social sector development and eradication of poverty, besides sound fiscal fundamentals contained in surplus budgets in recent years. Our study, however, suggests that economizing in government spending is more important than budgetary curtailment. The government should appoint an advisory Public Expenditure Committee, and publish a 'White Paper' on spending programmes on a regular basis. The fiscal management may further be improved by incorporating 'rolling expenditure programming' in the budgetary implementation. The on-going fiscal reforms should be made more effective to establish a prudent government sector with enhanced efficiency and productivity. Universiti Utara Malaysia 1998 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/5/1/analisis5125.pdf M. Mithani, Dawood and Hassan, Sallahuddin and Chik, Abdul Razak (1998) Trends and patterns of federal government spending in Malaysia. Analisis, 5 (1 & 2). pp. 67-87. ISSN 0127-8983 http://ijms.uum.edu.my/
spellingShingle HJ Public Finance
M. Mithani, Dawood
Hassan, Sallahuddin
Chik, Abdul Razak
Trends and patterns of federal government spending in Malaysia
title Trends and patterns of federal government spending in Malaysia
title_full Trends and patterns of federal government spending in Malaysia
title_fullStr Trends and patterns of federal government spending in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Trends and patterns of federal government spending in Malaysia
title_short Trends and patterns of federal government spending in Malaysia
title_sort trends and patterns of federal government spending in malaysia
topic HJ Public Finance
url https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/5/1/analisis5125.pdf
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AT hassansallahuddin trendsandpatternsoffederalgovernmentspendinginmalaysia
AT chikabdulrazak trendsandpatternsoffederalgovernmentspendinginmalaysia