The strong demand for commodities and their subsequent rising prices have led to a natural resource boom globally, which provides windfall gains to producing and exporting countries and their exchange traded funds (ETFs), experts say. For Malaysia, major non-fuel commodity exports such as palm oil, timber, saw logs, rubber and tin accounted for 6.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006 compared with 5.2% in 2000, reports Elaine Ang for The Malaysia Star. Including crude oil and natural gas, the ratio to GDP rose to 15.9% in 2006 from 12.4% in 2000. This could be one of the reasons why Malaysia’s ETF iShares MSCI Malaysia Index (EWM) has been doing so well. Currently, it’s up 32.7% year-to-date with about $852 million in assets.
Malaysia is predicted to expand by 6% in 2008, and there’s a 5-year government plan in place to move the economy forward, particularly by spending on education, manufacturing, technology and agriculture.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.