People watch the Budget 2020 speech by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng ‘live’ at a restaurant in Medan Selera Medan Kidd in Ipoh October 11, 2019. — Picture by Farhan Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 — The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government does not plan to reintroduce the Goods and Services Tax despite trade tensions weighing on the economy.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced this when tabling Budget 2020 in Parliament’s Lower House today.

“We do not plan to reintroduce the GST even if trade tension persists,” he said.

Lim said Malaysia has recorded solid growth of 4.9 per cent in the second quarter of this year, surpassing the initial lower forecast.

Malaysia’s current trade account balance is also in the positive zone, at RM92.5 billion as of August 2019 and a surplus account of RM43.4 billion. Foreign reserves stood at a healthy RM431 billion.

The PH administration forecasts growth to rise to 4.8 per cent next year on the back of resilient domestic private spending.

Inflation for 2019 is expected to remain low at 0.9 per cent, Lim said.