PM: Economy doing well, it's no artificial push.

(From New Straits Times (Malaysia))

KUALA LUMPUR: The impressive economic performance of late is not artificial, says Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The prime minister said the government did not artificially push up the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index and that the increase was gradual and not sudden.

"When the people saw the stock exchange doing well, they supported it," he said after chairing the Umno supreme council meeting here last night.

The share prices at the stock exchange were low enough to attract investors, he added. Abdullah was asked if the government was pushing up the KLCI to give a rosy picture in preparation for an early …