JOHOR BARU: Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Senator Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar (pic) rubbished allegations that the declaration of healthy international reserves was misleading and a cover-up of the country's true economic situation.
"The facts are the facts. There is no way of manipulating the figures," he told reporters on Tuesday after launching the 27th Public Sector Accountant Conference here.
He added that Bank Negara produces a detailed account of the country's International reserves at least every two months.
It was said that certain quarters including a few economic analysts had been sceptical over the country's international reserves and some even alleged the figures to be untrue.
Abdul Wahid also stressed that the current economic situation in the country was very different from the crisis it had been through in 1997/1998.
Abdul Wahid said that at that time the country'a international reserves was only at about USD20bil, which could only cover a little over three months of its retained imports.
"Our international reserves are about four times more now with USD94.5bil as of Aug 14, which will be cover more than seven months of retained imports.
"Last time (1997/1998) the country recorded a trade deficit but this time a surplus of RM41.7bil was recorded in the first half of the year," he said.
He added that apart from healthy balance sheet recorded by local companies, the labour market was also stable with a low unemployment rate of 3.1%.
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