KUALA LUMPUR: Despite the challenging financial environment, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has declared a dividend rate of 5.35% for conventional savings and 4.75% for shariah savings for 2022.
Although it is much lower than the rate declared for 2021, it is considered fairly reasonable considering the country was still in the recovery period after the Covid-19 pandemic.
For 2021, it gave out 6.10% for conventional savings and 5.65% for shariah savings.
The total payout to contributors amounts to RM51.14 billion, comprising RM45.44 billion for conventional savings and RM5.7 billion for shariah savings.
As of Dec 31, 2022, the EPF recorded a lower total gross investment income of RM55.33 billion, compared with RM68.89 billion in 2021, driven by high market volatility and lower valuations across equity and fixed-income markets.
EPF chairman Ahmad Badri Zahir said the payout will benefit more than 15 million EPF members, including members from the informal sector who are registered under i-Saraan, an incentive-based voluntary contribution programme.
“Despite the persistent global market downturn in 2022, the EPF’s investment portfolio maintained its resilience and maintained minimal impact,” he said in a statement.
“EPF’s well-diversified portfolio and healthy liquidity helped to reduce risk and enabled the fund to maintain investment assets at above RM1 trillion and deliver respectable dividend rates for 2022.”
Badri said EPF was able to declare a decent rate despite geopolitical instability due to the Ukraine-Russian conflict, the tightening of monetary policies by major central banks to reel in inflationary pressure, and the weak performance of equity markets.
“We believe our members’ retirement savings will benefit from the dividend and our consistent performance, especially in the long term.
“Our commitment to building our members’ savings has been the driving force behind our continued success. We remain steadfast in our dedication to delivering superior dividends and securing our members’ financial futures,” he said.
We are live on Telegram, subscribe here for breaking news and the latest announcements.