The new Pakatan Harapan government has promised the country a raft of reforms covering the areas of law, the economy, business and politics. — Picture by Azneal Ishak

KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — The Financial Times (FT) is predicting improved economic outlook in Malaysia following Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) general election victory.

The London-based weekly noted the correlation in the results of its indices on Malaysia’s economic and political sentiments in the first quarter and the same period last year, which showed economic views to improve by 1.3 times that of the political outlook.

“When the political outlook improves in Malaysia, the economic outlook typically improves by a greater proportion.

“Last month’s election result will boost the political outlook in states held by the victorious Pakatan Harapan coalition, so we expect economic sentiment to improve markedly in those areas,” it said.

From its survey of 1,000 respondents, it found the effect to be most apparent in states previously held by Barisan Nasional, which was defeated for the first time in the 14th general election.

The correlation was weaker in states already under PH control.

“The median increase in the political sentiment index in those states was 9 per cent, compared with 20 per cent in states held by the Barisan Nasional.

“The median increase in the economic sentiment index in the former was 27 per cent, compared with 33 per cent in the latter,” the FT said.

However, it noted that Malaysians were generally and consistently pessimistic in both their political and economic outlooks.

PH’s general election triumph has been described as a “reset” for Malaysia that had been under BN rule since Merdeka.

The new government has promised the country a raft of reforms covering the areas of law, the economy, business and politics.