Malaysia has stayed away from the worst of the economic situation and is currently moving beyond the bottom of the curve, a local daily reported here on Wednesday.

The Star quoted Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak as saying that the stimulus packages the Malaysian government had announced to boost the country's economy was performing according to expectation.

Two stimulus packages worth a total of 67 billion ringgit (19. 14 billion U.S. dollars) were announced in November 2008 and March 2009.

Najib said in his speech read out by Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed at the Intrade Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur International Trade Forum that the challenge now was to sustain recovery.

Najib said that any decision to stop Malaysian government's support would be made only when it was convinced that the economic growth in the country was well underway.

On the other hand, Najib cautioned that although data from the United States showed that the worst of the crisis in the housing and banking sectors was over, there were no signs of an upturn in the wider economy.

Najib said experts had looked to Asian countries to lead the recovery but given the close connection between Asia and the West, Asia's rise was likely to be constrained by the low demand from the United States and Europe.

Source : Xinhua