Human Writes: Billionaire boom, middle-class bust

Malaysia's squeezed middle class is 'caught between rising living costs, stagnant wages, and thinning buffers of savings'. — 123rf

Malaysians are battling a brutal cost-of-living squeeze nowadays, taking on side hustles or hunting cheaper foods as “price warriors” to scrape by.

At the same time, Malaysia is emerging as a top hub for the ultra-rich – one of the fastest- growing. Its billionaires are set to surge 39% over the next five years, ranking the country 15th globally among nations with more than five billionaires, a new report says.