PETALING JAYA: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is expected to announce its dividends soon, and experts believe it could maintain the dividend rate for conventional savings at 6.3% in 2025.<\/p>\n
In an optimistic scenario, it could even reach 6.5%.<\/p>\n
This is despite the EPF adopting a more cautious stance over fourth quarter performance.<\/p>\n
For 2024, both the conventional and syariah funds reported dividends of 6.3%.<\/p>\n
The 6.3% reported last year was the fund\u2019s strongest performance since 2017, when the retirement fund announced 6.9% for conventional savings.<\/p>\n
Bank Muamalat Malaysia chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid predicted a 6.3% rate based on the EPF\u2019s performance for the first nine months of the financial year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EPF has delivered a respectable performance in the first nine months of 2025, whereby gross investment income grew by 11%.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, the improvement in global equities during the final quarter of 2025 should help contribute to EPF investment income. Hence, my sense is that the dividend rate of 6.3% can be a baseline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FTSE Emas Syariah Index fell by 3.9% in 2025 while the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 2.3% during the same period.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps the dividend for syariah may not be the same,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
EPF reported RM63.99bil in investment income for the first nine months of 2025, an 11% rise year-on-year.<\/p>\n
Sunway University economics professor Dr Yeah Kim Leng said EPF contributors are expected to receive another year of strong dividends given the 11% year-on-year increase in investment income in the first three quarters last year.<\/p>\n
He is predicting dividend rates of between 6% and 6.5% for both conventional and syariah savings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe healthy dividend will be another factor contributing to sustained consumption and a boost in savings that typically lead to a strengthening of consumer confidence and sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cEPF\u2019s performance is highly commendable given the elevated geopolitical uncertainties and turbulence in the global economy last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This will also be the first full financial year in which withdrawals from the Akaun Fleksibel have been in effect.<\/p>\n
Prof Yeah is of the view that the Akaun Fleksibel, also known as Account 3, where 10% of contributions are channelled, is unlikely to have an impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe withdrawals from the Fleksibel account are unlikely to negatively affect the overall fund size given the rising number of contributors and continuing wage increases.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdditionally, the high and steady dividends motivate those with excess savings to keep their money with the EPF,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
In November, EPF chief executive officer Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn said the 11% growth in total investment income in the first nine months of 2025, alongside 12% growth in assets under management, was a result of the execution of the fund\u2019s strategic asset allocation.<\/p>\n
This has allowed the EPF to participate in the recovery of equity markets \u201cpost-Liberation Day\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PETALING JAYA: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is expected to announce its dividends soon, and experts believe it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5808,145653,145657,145656,72,145654,8029,30269,176,28629,61,82471,60,174,175,145655],"class_list":{"0":"post-310680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-5808","9":"tag-6-3","10":"tag-ahmad-zulqarnain-onn","11":"tag-akaun-fleksibel","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-conventional-savings","14":"tag-dividends","15":"tag-epf","16":"tag-finance","17":"tag-global-equities","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-investment-income","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-personal-finance","22":"tag-personalfinance","23":"tag-syariah-savings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}