EPF has announced its Q1 2022 investment income of RM15.85 billion which is significantly lower compared to its 2021 performance which recorded RM19.29 billion, the pension fund attributed the dip due to volatile global markets.
The 22% lower gross investment income will indicate how EPF manages the dividend payout for members for the year with most analysts expecting it to be much lower than 2021 as well. Despite a challenging period and being ravaged by the pandemic the pension fund distributed 6.1% in dividends last year, the payout was one of the highest it had paid out.
It will be challenging for the institution to emulate last year’s successful investment income returns as the global market is extremely unpredictable for most parts of 2022. There is no clear indication of how the markets will perform for most of the year, however, economists believe the Russia-Ukraine conflict is adding to the inflation and recession worry hitting the big economies globally.
For the full year-end of December 2021, EPF recorded an investment income amount of RM67.06 billion from RM63.45 billion generated in 2020 when the global economy rebounded, these record figures could be a hard benchmark to maintain for this year.
