• On the BPN 2.0, as of 3 November, cash assistance of around RM4.5bn was channelled to 9.86 million recipients
• Applications approved in the Wage Subsidy Programme (WSP) sustained at around 2.639mn workers as at 30 October, where RM12.159bn was approved (RM12bn in the previous week).
• BNM's SME Soft Loans Funds as of 30 October, banks approved loans worth RM10.87bn for 23,305 SMEs, an increase of RM0.03bn from 23,264 SMEs in the previous week

Following the announcement of Prihatin Supplementary Initiative Package (Kita Prihatin) on 22 September 2020, the weekly update by Ministry of Finance (MOF) on the stimulus packages now focused on the progress of BPN 2.0, where around RM4.5bn (64% of the total cash assistance of RM7bn) was channelled to 9.86 million recipients as of 3 November 2020. This comprises 7 million recipients from the B40 category and 2.86 million from the M40 category. The remaining balance of RM2.5bn cash assistance or 36% of the total RM7bn will be disbursed later to benefit the targeted 10.6 million recipients.

Similarly, in the latest 28th stimulus update, for PENJANA SME financing, a total of 4,488 applications for funding worth RM965.5mn had been approved as at 30 October, with close to 50% of RM2bn allocated to assist SMEs affected by COVID19. In the PENJANA Tourism Financing, 441 SMEs have submitted their applications, out of which 181 applications with a total of RM35.9 million have been approved as of 30 October 2020 (an allocation of RM1bn was established to support local micro, small and medium enterprises in the tourism sector). In this update, MOF also highlighted that applications approved in the Wage Subsidy Programme were sustained at around 2.639mn workers as at 30 October, where RM12.159bn was approved (RM12bn in the previous week). The current approval to date was equivalent to about 75% of the total RM16.2bn overall allocation. Details on progress and achievement of other initiatives can be found in the Appendix I and II.

As for the update on the Empowering the People, Hiring Incentive Programme and Training Assistance, a total of 70,113 employees (an increase from 64,494 employees) have been successful in securing jobs since the commencement of the registration since 15 June 2020. In fact, through JanaKerja fund, RM3.7bn has been allocated in order to create 500,000 job opportunities. This will be implemented through programme such as skills improvement and retraining programme and Penjana Kerjaya hiring incentives. As of 30 October, a total 106,047 individuals have been approved in reskilling and upskilling programme whereby among the courses involved entrepreneurship training, trade digitisation and IR4.0 programme.

On the labour market condition, Finance Minister (FM) noted that recent improvement in unemployment rate was consistent with better job market due to ongoing stimulus packages. Malaysia’s unemployment rate improved by 0.1 percentage points to 4.6% in September from 4.7% August. On a quarterly basis, the country’s unemployment rate averaged 4.7% in 3Q20 compared to 5.1% in 2Q20. In the coming months, we believe the recovery in labour market conditions to remain stable and expect the country’s unemployment rate to average around 4.5-4.7% for 2020 (3.3% in 2019). In 2020, the Government announced a total stimulus packages amounting to RM305bn or 20.7% of GDP, which will add around 4 percentage points to the country’s 2020 real GDP growth. As announced in the 2021 Budget, the Government’s total expenditure is projected to increase by 2.5% to RM322.5bn or 20.6% of GDP in 2021, which will likely add an additional about 4 percentage points to 2021 real GDP growth.

Source: Affin Hwang Research - 13 Nov 2020