PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was in an upbeat mood as he briefed the media following a roundtable with bank bosses. But the background was sombre.

A RM5bil allocation was announced on Tuesday for a government-backed scheme guaranteeing loans to micro-and-small-medium-enterprises (MSMEs) – on top of the earlier RM5bil announced in support of MSMEs affected by the Middle East conflict.