World Bank: Malaysia’s price control mechanism causes supply shortage rather than lower cost of living

The price control mechanism in Malaysia, which has the most price-controlled items in the region, has caused lower supplies of food staples, resulting in higher prices, according to the World Bank.

据世界银行称，马来西亚的价格管制机制导致主食供应减少，导致价格上涨，该机制是该地区价格管制项目最多的国家。

The World Bank’s lead economist for macroeconomics, trade and investment Dr Apurva Sanghi commented that the country’s price control mechanism and allocation of agricultural subsidies have distorted the efficiency in resources allocation.

世界银行宏观经济、贸易和投资首席经济学家Apurva Sanghi博士评论说，该国的价格控制机制和农业补贴分配扭曲了资源配置效率。

To resolve the high cost of living issue, the World Bank sees the urgent need for the Malaysian government to review its price control mechanisms and agricultural subsidies.

为了解决高昂的生活成本问题，世界银行认为马来西亚政府迫切需要检讨其价格管制机制和农业补贴。

Speaking at the public launch of the World Bank’s Malaysia Economic Monitor (MEM) 2023, Apurva pointed out that Malaysia’s high utilisation of price controls may have exacerbated the country’s cost of living issue.

Apurva在世界银行 2023 年马来西亚经济监测（MEM）的公开发布会上指出，马来西亚对价格管制的高度利用可能加剧了该国的生活成本问题。

“Guess which country in the region has the [highest] number of price controls? It is Malaysia. We found out that over half of the firms surveyed that were affected by these price controls revealed that they actually cut their production by a fourth,” said Apurva, citing the findings of the bank’s economic report.

“猜猜该地区哪个国家/地区的价格管制数量最多？是马来西亚。我们发现，在受这些价格管制影响的受访公司中，超过一半的公司表示，他们实际上将产量削减了四分之一，”Apurva 援引该银行经济报告的调查结果说。

“So if you have a shrinking supply as a result of price controls, that is gonna jack up the prices of the affected goods,” he explained.

“因此，如果由于价格管制导致供应减少，那将推高 受影响商品的价格，”他解释道。

Commenting on subsidies, Apurva said despite Malaysians spending more on non-rice products, the bulk of agricultural subsidies goes towards supporting the production of rice.

Apurva在评论补贴时说，尽管大马人在非稻米产品上花费更多，但大部分农业补贴都用于支持稻米生产。

“Put yourself in the shoes of a Malaysian farmer, you are subject to price controls so what you produce can’t get you that much money, and you have these subsidies coming in which don’t really incentivise you to produce what consumers are demanding.

“设身处地为大马农民设身处地，你受到价格管制，所以你生产的东西不能给你带来那么多钱，而且你获得的这些补贴并没有真正激励你生产消费者需要的东西.

“So the way out on the meso (mid-scale) front is that you have to increase supply by removing these distortions and providing incentives so supply increases and brings down the cost of goods,” he said.

“因此，中观（中等规模）方面的出路是，你必须通过消除这些扭曲和提供激励措施来增加供应，从而增加供应并降低商品成本，”他说。

In its MEM 2023, the World Bank also underlined that between 2019 and 2021, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in Malaysia was at 15.4% — equivalent to five million people.

世界银行在其 MEM 2023 中还强调，在 2019 年至 2021 年期间，马来西亚中度或严重粮食不安全的发生率为 15.4%，相当于 500 万人。

“Insufficient diversification in domestic production has led to growing imports in important categories of food products, especially meats and edible offal, maize, and soybeans.

“国内生产的多样化不足导致重要类别食品的进口增加，尤其是肉类和食用内脏、玉米和大豆。

“This has adversely impacted the poor in Malaysia,” the World Bank said in the report.

世界银行在报告中说：“这对马来西亚的穷人产生了不利影响。”