KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has announced a dividend rate of 5.35 per cent for its 2022 conventional savings and 4.75 per cent for its 2022 syariah savings.
The total payout amounts to RM51.14 billion, with RM45.4 billion and RM5.7 billion for the conventional and syariah savings, respectively.
This dividend rate is a decrease from the 2021 rates when EPF declared 6.1 per cent for the conventional savings and 5.65 per cent for syariah savings, but it beat the 2020 dividends of 5.20 per cent (conventional) and 4.90 per cent (syariah).
Economists had said the possible lower dividend was largely due to the massive withdrawals from 2020 to early 2022 through four special programmes.
An EPF withdrawal of up to RM10,000 per member was allowed last year, following the i-Lestari and i-Sinar schemes in 2020, and i-Citra in July 2021.
Volatile international market, higher interest rates and poor domestic returns on underperforming Malaysian companies were also cited as reasons for the expected lower dividend.