Malaysia to boost economy in 2020 as Sino-U.S. trade war drags on.

Malaysia's government will likely present an expanded budget on Friday to temper a weak economic outlook, as it grapples with global recession fears, the protracted U.S.-China trade war and a large debt pile left behind by its predecessors. Southeast Asia's third-largest economy bucked a global cooling trend and grew faster than expected over the first half of 2019, but analysts say growing protectionist policies around the world will eventually drag on the trade-reliant country.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government will at the least need to sustain its development spending to prop up domestic demand next year, economists have said, even as it continues to deal with 1 trillion ringgit ($238.66 billion) in debt that has been blamed on embattled former premier Najib Razak's administration. "We think Budget 2020 will likely include a contingency plan...