Malaysia

Credit card circulation even dwindled to less than 500k from about 700k.

These will continue to weigh on the export and industrial performance, says DBS, but Malaysia’s economic growth will remain fairly resilient.

This is how the Statistic Department chief statistician of Malaysia sees it.

Sales of web-connected TVs jumped from a mere 7% to 17% over the last 12 months.

It is said to be the country with the best inflation profile right now.

About 473,928 recipients from low income groups benefited from the government's 1Azam programme, an effort to fight poverty.

Lower oil revenue looms amid sluggish export demands.

The country's financial system and corporate sector have made Malaysia's large fiscal deficits and high government debt "affordable".

 A 1.6% improvement from April's export performance is in the offing but analysts say this "growth" is largely the result of low base effect.

2.1 million rice cookers were sold in Southeast Asia despite the sales dip suffered by the Small Domestic Appliances sector in 1Q12.

Efforts by policymakers to expand the economy through consumption and and investment growth are gaining traction.

Malaysia's B2B IT market is now valued at US$75.5m, with laptop sales counting as the biggest contributor in IT retail.  

The financing initiative will fund the building of road, rail, power, water projects with a $75 million lending cap each to increase trade and investments in the region.

There are more and more warning signs surrounding the country's fiscal health which investors should consider.

For the first time, Malaysia sets economy-wide minimum wages- MYR900 per month for Peninsular Malaysia and MYR800 per month for East Malaysia.

But it will slowly rise in the coming months to average at around 2.7% for the full 2012 period, says OSK-DMG.