Half of household loan accounts unaffected by OPR hike - Ahmad Maslan

 

PARLIAMENT | A total of 50.3 percent or 6.4 million accounts of the total loan accounts in the household sector are fixed-rate loans that are not affected by the 100 basis point increase in the overnight policy rate (OPR) last year, said Deputy Finance Minister I Ahmad Maslan.

An estimated 54.8 percent of loan accounts of low-income borrowers, with an income of less than RM5,000 per month, are on fixed-rate loans, he said.

“The government understands the people’s anxiety to repay the increasing monthly instalments following the increase in OPR and the impact on borrowers, especially the B40 group.

“Nevertheless, not all borrowers are affected by the increase in OPR because the increase to monthly instalments only involves borrowers with floating-rate type loans,” he said during a question and answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Ahmad was responding to Shaharizukirnain Abd Kadir (PAS-Setiu), who asked about the study carried out by the government on the effect of the OPR increase on the B40 group.

He insisted that the move to increase the OPR by the Monetary Policy Committee of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) was appropriate to ensure inflation was under control and the economy remained stable.

Deputy Finance Minister I Ahmad Maslan

“The increase in OPR by 100 basis points reflects the return of monetary policy accommodation to a reasonable level following a reduction of a cumulative 125 basis points to a historic low of 1.75 percent to provide support to the economy during the pandemic.

“Therefore, for floating-rate loans taken before the pandemic, the amount for monthly instalments is currently still lower than that of instalments before the pandemic, which is 3 percent,” he noted.

- Bernama