Rafizi Ramli podcast

 I keep saying:

1. Liquidity is a problem in Msia & ASEAN.
2. Stagflation is the result. We have been is a stagflation economy since 2024.
3. Cause is both wages not keeping up, Tech and ai not fully utilised due to govt policies and funding issues. 
4. Subsidies and GLC mismanagement and encroachment on SMI & SME markets are also another cause for tech funding, R&D lacking in productivity increase.

Now, the policy makers are shifting the blame on these issues that were not paid attention to earlier because they were too busy politicking and attacking, defending against each other while in power.👎

Bank Negara says the second quarter's growth was driven by sustained domestic demand and strong export performance. That's true. Household demand is indeed robust.

So why can't people feel it? Go ask folks at the shop. Many really don't feel it. And at the same time, cost of living keeps rising, wages aren't keeping up.

Start with one concept. GDP measures output—how much is spent in an economy at a given time. It doesn't directly tie to wages. It's not one-to-one.

But there is a pretty strong correlation, not just in Malaysia but internationally. Wages should move closely with productivity.

In Malaysia, that correlation is gone. From 2010 to now, wages haven't grown as fast as productivity.

And this is where the difference between two numbers rarely mentioned together comes in.

GDP counts everything produced in Malaysia. Doesn't matter if it's foreigners, foreign companies, or locals. Everything made here gets counted.

GNI is different. It measures income accrued only to Malaysians or Malaysian companies.

Malaysia has always had GNI lower than GDP. That's normal for a small open economy that takes in a lot of foreign investment.

But the gap between the two is getting bigger. And it started widening in the first quarter of 2025—right around the start of the AI boom.

This isn't conclusive proof. But most export sectors, especially chip companies, are foreign-owned. Intel. AMD. Lam Research. High demand, high profits, and dividends sent back to parent companies abroad.

The money comes in. Then it's taken back out.

Then there's another layer.

Our economy is pyramid-shaped, and the top is sleek. We have about one million enterprises. The ones counted as large companies are just two and a half percent of that. Medium another two and a half percent. The rest, about ninety-five percent, are small and micro.

So economic growth can look pretty every year, but it might be driven by just ten thousand companies. The ones really benefiting are those ten thousand, the people working for them, and the government collecting taxes.

Most of our people work for SMEs, or self-employed as micro. And SMEs don't feel a thing unless they're part of that cycle—unless they're supplying chemicals, or in the semiconductor value chain.

That's why in people's eyes, it doesn't matter five percent or four percent.

It's actually about wages. That's what they understand. That's what they feel every month.

Watch the full breakdown of the country's economic growth issue and its impact on people in YBM Podcast Episode 60: