Overnight Policy Rate in Malaysia
The Overnight Policy Rate (%, eop) ended 2024 at 3.00%, unchanged from the 3.00% end-2024 value and down from the reading of 3.25% a decade earlier. For reference, the average interest rate in ASEAN was 4.86% at end-2024. For more information on interest rate, visit our dedicated page.
Malaysia Interest Rate Chart
Note: This chart displays Policy Interest Rate (%) for Malaysia from 2025 to 2021.
Source: Macrobond.
Malaysia Interest Rate Data
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overnight Policy Rate (%, eop) | 1.75 | 1.75 | 2.75 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| 3-Month KLIBOR (%, eop) | 1.94 | 2.05 | 3.68 | 3.77 | 3.73 |
| 10-Year Bond Yield (%, eop) | 2.65 | 3.58 | 4.09 | 3.73 | 3.81 |
Bank Negara Malaysia leaves rates unchanged in September
Central Bank back on hold: At its meeting on 4 September, the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) decided to maintain the overnight policy rate at 2.75% as markets had expected, after having reduced it for the first time in five years in July.
Easing uncertainty and supportive domestic dynamics behind September’s hold: Soft inflation and resilient GDP growth led the BNM to return to a hold, as neither a rate hike nor a cut was deemed necessary. The Bank noted that global economic uncertainty had eased and that risks to the economic outlook were broadly balanced.
Further rate cuts in 2025 unlikely: Going forward, the majority of our panelists expect rates to remain at current levels by December, while the rest anticipate a 25 basis point cut. Softer-than-expected GDP growth, particularly due to intensifying frictions in global trade, poses a downside risk to the policy rate. The Bank will reconvene on 6 November.
Panelist insight: Nomura’s Euben Paracuelles and Yiru Chen said: “We maintain our forecast that BNM will leave the OPR unchanged at 2.75% at the last meeting of 2025 (in November) and throughout 2026. Our view of a resilient growth outlook despite external headwinds is still broadly consistent with BNM’s assessment […]. Consistent with BNM’s assessment that the current monetary stance is appropriate and supportive of the economy, we still think the OPR cut at the previous MPC meeting was a one-off and is therefore unlikely to mark the start of an easing cycle […]. Nevertheless, we see some risk of an OPR cut in 2026, if downside risks to growth materialize, particularly from global trade tensions and the implementation of sectoral US tariffs.”
How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Malaysian interest rate projections for the next ten years from a panel of 21 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable interest rate forecast available for Malaysian interest rate.
Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Malaysian interest rate projections.
Want to get access to the full dataset of Malaysian interest rate forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.
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