Minister of Finance
Malaysia

Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Aziz has served as Malaysia’s Minister of Finance under two Prime Ministers, Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Appointed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia, he led MOF in formulating and implementing eight stimulus packages, collectively valued at USD125 billion to support, among others, lower income groups, the unemployed and small businesses.

Tengku Zafrul has also tabled two expansionary fiscal budgets valued at approximately USD150 billion collectively, which focused on job creation and business recovery. During his tenure, Malaysia’s unemployment rate reduced from a peak of 5.3% (May 2020) to 3.9% (May 2022), with almost 560,000 jobs created in 2021. Other key initiatives include the effective execution of the national vaccination programme and National Recovery Plan, which were conceptualized by MOF to exit the pandemic safely and systematically.