KUALA LUMPUR: The financial position of households has remained generally resilient, supported by Malaysia's stable labour market conditions, according to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).
It said domestic policy measures, including expanded government cash assistance and continued fuel subsidies, have also helped contain the pass-through of higher global costs to domestic consumer prices.
"This has, in turn, limit the impact on household purchasing power and debt repayment capacity.
"The quality of household borrowings has remained largely stable," the central bank said in its BNM Insights titled "Beyond Oil: From Geopolitical Conflict to Financial Stability Risk".
Looking at months-in-arrears (MIA) indicators, it said the MIA-2 and MIA-3 ratios, which indicate deeper repayment stress, increased marginally, while the MIA-1 ratio moderated significantly over the same period.
"This suggests that there has been no broad-based increase in new repayment difficulties among households," it said, adding that the demand for repayment assistance also remained broadly stable.
Collectively, these indicators provide limited evidence that the onset of the West Asia conflict has materially affected the household sector’s debt repayment capacity.
Looking ahead, BNM said micro-level indicators suggest that most household borrowers are well placed to weather potential shocks. - Bernama
