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":349835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[1135,164450,164454,164453,79,164451,26440,18,29249,53521,19,48778,17,234,235,164452],"class_list":["post-349834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-1135","tag-6-3","tag-ahmad-zulqarnain-onn","tag-akaun-fleksibel","tag-business","tag-conventional-savings","tag-dividends","tag-eire","tag-epf","tag-global-equities","tag-ie","tag-investment-income","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-syariah-savings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116111612492077524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}