PETALING JAYA: Although the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has cautioned members to temper expectations for the second half of 2026, economists expect the retirement fund to deliver a dividend of around 6% for the year.<\/p>\n
However, they said the final outcome would depend largely on global market and geopolitical conditions in the coming months.<\/p>\n
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the fund\u2019s strong first-half performance \u00adprovided a solid foundation for a respectable full-year return.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really depends on global market sentiment, which is likely to revolve around the reopening of the Straits of Hormuz, protectionist policies by the Trump administration, as well as the prospect of higher interest rates by the US Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose a 6% dividend rate can be the baseline for 2026,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Sunway University economics professor Dr Yeah Kim Leng said the EPF had delivered an exemplary performance in the first half of 2026, underpinned by robust equity returns and strategic asset allocation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, as the fund\u2019s management has itself cautioned, the second-half outlook is clouded by heightened uncertainties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Yeah said these included heigh\u00adtened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and unpredictable US policy shifts, including potential tariff adjustments and changes in Federal Reserve interest rates which could trigger sharp vola\u00adtility across global capital markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst this backdrop, a full-year dividend of between 5.5% and 6.0% will be commendable for 2026, assuming no severe market dislocation in the coming months,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The EPF recorded total investment income of RM57.5bil for the six months ended June 30, up 48% from RM38.92bil a year earlier.<\/p>\n
For the second quarter alone, investment income rose 44% year-on-year to RM29.77bil from RM20.61bil, with equities remaining the biggest contributor.<\/p>\n
EPF chief executive officer Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn said the fund had capitalised on strong global equity markets while maintaining a disciplined, long-term investment approach.<\/p>\n
However, he remained cautious about the outlook for the second half of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimilar to the first quarter (1Q26), we continued to front-load income during the 2Q26 as market and geopolitical risks remain elevated.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus remains on delivering sustai\u00adnable long-term returns, backed by a resilient portfolio,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PETALING JAYA: Although the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has cautioned members to temper expectations for the second half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[79,161268,5818,18,29249,177301,275298,9747,19,5389,48778,17,18018,234,235,182795],"class_list":["post-651477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-dividend","tag-economists","tag-eire","tag-epf","tag-equity-returns","tag-geopolitical-conditions","tag-global-market","tag-ie","tag-interest-rates","tag-investment-income","tag-ireland","tag-market-volatility","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-petaling-jaya"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651477","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=651477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}