style="text-transform: uppercase;">Kuala Lumpur: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) maintained the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) at 3.25 per cent during its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting here Wednesday. The central bank said the current stance of monetary policy remained accommodative and was assessed to be appropriate, given developments in monetary and financial conditions.

"The MPC will continue to carefully assess external developments and their implications on the Malaysian economy, as well as monitor the risk of destabilising financial imbalances.

"This is to ensure that the monetary policy stance is consistent with the sustainability of the growth prospects of the Malaysian economy," BNM said in a statement Wednesday.

While, Malaysian financial markets have been affected by global developments, the central bank said there had been no disruption to financial intermediation.

"There remains ample liquidity in the domestic financial system with continued orderly functioning of the financial markets.

Banking institutions are operating with strong capital and liquidity buffers, and continue to provide financing to the economy," it added.

BNM said economic activity continued to be supported by growth in domestic demand amid a moderation in exports in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Going forward, it added that domestic demand, would remain the key driver of growth.

"While private consumption is expected to moderate, it will remain supported by the steady rise in income and employment, and the additional disposable income from lower oil prices.

"Investment activity is projected to remain resilient, with broad-based capital spending by both the private and public sectors, cushioning the lower oil and gas-related investment activity.

"While export growth will be affected by lower commodity prices, the performance of manufactured exports is expected to improve. The prospects are therefore for the Malaysian economy to still remain on a steady growth path," it explained.

According to BNM, inflation for 2015 is expected to be lower than earlier anticipated due to the lower energy and commodity prices.

It said the projected lower energy prices would partially offset other domestic cost factors.

"With the implementation of the managed float pricing mechanism for fuel, the outlook for headline inflation would be subjected to the volatility of oil prices.

"Nevertheless, the expectation is for underlying inflation to remain relatively stable, amid the more moderate demand conditions," it added. – Bernama