EPF chief: Markets are fine, look at long-term

Employees’ Provident Fund CEO Shahril Ridza Ridzuan today assured that the financial markets are fine and should not be evaluated based on short-term trends.

“(Financial) markets are fine, it’s in line with global and regional markets.

“Markets go up, markets go down. We always remind people you should never look at markets over a short-term period of just a few days.

“Markets should always be viewed in three to five-year cycles, because that's the right way to do investment,” Shahril said.

He was speaking to reporters after briefing the Council of Eminent Persons on EPF operations at Menara Ilham, Kuala Lumpur today.

He said regional financial markets have all been on a slight sell down due to the strength of the US dollar as well as global political issues.

When asked if the government’s announcements about its national debt figure and liabilities had affected the markets, he said it was unlikely.

“(It was) not really (affected by government announcements).

“If you actually look again at the markets as a whole, basically all regional markets have had a bit of a sell down because of the flights from emerging markets.

“But this happens quite regularly so I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about,” he explained.

Shahril had met with the council today to brief them about the EPF and its services and investments.

“This was just a briefing on the EPF. I think they wanted to know what else we can do in terms of helping our members achieve a better future which is in line with our vision.

“Our vision as you know is to provide the best service to our members. So just a briefing basically on how we deliver our service, our investments,” he said.

He said there might be more updates from EPF but declined to reveal further details.

“There will be further updates I think but that one I’ll leave that to the council to announce,” he said.

After Pakatan Harapan had assumed power on May 9, both Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng (above) had come out to announce that the country national debt was now RM1 trillion.

This was more than the RM700 billion figure revealed by the previous BN administration.

Both Mahathir's and Lim's announcements were met with criticism from some quarters who said government leaders should be “tactful” when revealed national debt figures as it may spook the financial markets. -Mkini