Malaysia

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Country summary

Capital

Kuala Lumpur

Borders

Brunei 381 km, Indonesia 1,782 km, Thailand 506 km

Government type

constitutional monarchy

Population

25,715,819 (July 2010 est.)[1]

Population growth

1.723% (2010 est.)[1]

Life expectancy

73.29 years[1]

Unemployment

3.7% (2009 est.)[1]

Index of Economic Freedom

59[2]

Corruption Perceptions Index

56[3]

Doing Business ranking

23[4]


During the late 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain established colonies and protectorates in the area of current Malaysia; these were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. In 1948, the British-ruled territories on the Malay Peninsula formed the Federation of Malaya, which became independent in 1957. Malaysia was formed in 1963 when the former British colonies of Singapore and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern coast of Borneo joined the Federation. The first several years of the country's history were marred by a Communist insurgency, Indonesian confrontation with Malaysia, Philippine claims to Sabah, and Singapore's secession from the Federation in 1965. During the 22-year term of Prime Minister MAHATHIR bin Mohamad (1981-2003), Malaysia was successful in diversifying its economy from dependence on exports of raw materials to expansion in manufacturing, services, and tourism.[1]

Economical characteristics

  • Currency: Ringgit (ISO code: MYR)
  • Central bank discount rate: NA%[1]
  • Commercial banks lending rate: 6.08% (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Stock of money (M1): $51.51 billion (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $200.9 billion (31 December 2008)[1]

Notable events:

Statistics

Statistic / Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
GDP (million USD)[6] 79 148 93 790 92 784 100 846 110 202 124 749 137 954 156 408 186 721 221 773
Govt. debt (% of GDP)[7]
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)[8] 20.907 18.499 23.951 23.071 22.354
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)[9] 18.439 15.619 18.567 21.803 18.952
Debt to revenue (years)

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 CIA - The World Factbook. "Malaysia", from The World Factbook. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  2. Heritage Foundation. "Malaysia", Economic Freedom Score. A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  3. Transparency International. "Malaysia", Corruption Perceptions Index 2009. A lower ranking is better; but please note that the numbers cannot be compared between countries or years due to different methodology. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  4. Doing Business. "Malaysia", Doing Business 2010 (part of The World Bank Group). A lower ranking is better; but please be careful when comparing between different countries or years. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  5. Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff. "This Time is Different", Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-14216-6, p. 373. (The list does not claim to be complete.) Referenced 2011-07-20.
  6. World Bank. "Malaysia: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  7. World Bank. "Malaysia: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  8. World Bank. "Malaysia: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  9. World Bank. "Malaysia: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.

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