MOF meeting Fitch, sounds unproductive to me

From Bernama:

The Ministry of Finance is expected to meet representatives of Fitch Ratings Agency later today to convince them that Malaysia's economy is still sustainable and should be viewed positively, said Secretary General Tan Sri Irwan Serigar Abdullah.

He said the agency, which currently rates Malaysia A-, had implied a 50 per cent likelihood of a downgrade in the country's credit ratings.

"We hope with initiatives on fiscal consolidation and growth emphasis as well as the launch of our Eleventh Malaysia Plan that allocated a total of RM260 billion for development expenditure, it will give positive indicators to the rating agency," he said.

He said Malaysia's economic growth was still good last year, and in the first quarter of this year posted 5.6 per cent growth while external trade was also growing.

But despite concerns over the current balance of payments, it is still positive, he told reporters after officiating the Rice Bowl startup awards organised by New Entrepreneurs Foundation (NEF) in conjunction with the 1ASEAN Entrepreneur Summit (1AES).

Fitch has touched before on one of the key reasons for Malaysia being under review was the 1MDB situation.  Since then, 1MDB has revealed some of its accounts were a little messed up as its Singapore accounts had Assets instead of cash.  Is it an accounting problem or is this a communication problem?

Deutsche bank wanted early repayment, probably as a result of a covenant which liquidity was an issue as Singapore bank held assets instead of cash.  Maybe the MOF could have addressed something about 1MDB if they are serious about convincing Fitch.  But it looks like they weren't really that serious.