28 percent of Malaysians borrow money to buy basic goods

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said today that a recent study by Agensi Kaunseling Dan Pengurusan Kredit (AKPK) found that 18 percent of working Malaysian adults are unable to make any savings in the last six months.

In the same report, it was highlighted that 28 percent of working adults needed to borrow money to buy essential goods, Lim said.

"This is a worrying trend that must be addressed in this Malaysia Baru spirit," he added at the launch of the Market Place, Penang Fair, organised by Bursa Malaysia today.

"Statistics provided by AKPK also showed that the number of financial counselling cases provided by the agencies to Malaysians was highest in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru.

"This is attributed to the high cost of living in these main cities," he said.

The agency also shared that in most cases, individuals seeking counselling are mostly heavily saddled with credit card debt and are lacking in financial literacy.

Government data indicate that as at October 2018, there were a total of 8,313 reported cases of financial frauds and scams.

Lim said the same data showed that telecommunication fraud cases alone came to about RM162 million.

"This is alarming and a cause for concern that some Malaysians are still lacking in financial literacy and fall prey to these frauds and scams.

" The enormous amount involved also pointed to a lot of lost opportunities to invest wisely or wealth accumulation," said Lim, who is also the DAP secretary-general.

"Given the alarming red flags, it is therefore crucial that we as a nation step up on our financial literacy and increase our efforts to learn smart ways to manage our finances.

" We need to particularly invest in a regulated environment instead of falling victim to get-rich-quick schemes or fraudulent companies and investment scams," said the former Penang chief minister.

Among others, Bursa Malaysia Bhd chief executive officer Tajuddin Atan, and chief commercial officer Selvarany Rasiah were present at the event held at the Spice Convention Center in Bayan Baru, Penang.  - Mkini