Almost 90% opted to defer financial repayments, says debt management agency poll

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): According to an online poll conducted by the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK), 88% or 1,648 of 1,873 respondents, opted for the deferment of financial repayments under the moratorium introduced by Bank Negara.

AKPK Financial Education Department, Module Development Unit head, Nirmala Supramaniam said a survey on 788 respondents who took up the moratorium found that 48% or 378 of them wanted to build an emergency fund.

"Some took up the moratorium to spend the money on daily essentials and they accounted for 21% or 165 of the respondents; for investment purposes 16% (126), for further borrowings 11% (87) and four percent (32) had no plans.

"However, the result of the polls does not reflect the actual overall situation as it was a random polls conducted online through AKPK Faceboook and AKPK microsite, #askAKP from April to May," she told Bernama after appearing as guest on the Ruang Bicara talk show programme on Bernama TV on Thursday (July 2) night.

Meanwhile, Nirmala said the AKPK survey also found that financial stress level had increased by 35% among those working during the recent movement control order (MCO) period.

She said this occurred because the MCO and the Covid-19 pandemic were unprecedented and many were unprepared in terms of having emergency savings. - Bernama