KUALA LUMPUR: Housing loans made up the largest chunk of household debt in Malaysia, says the Finance Ministry.
In a written reply to Labis MP Pang Hok Liong in the Dewan Rakyat, it said that 60.5% of household debt in the country are housing loans and added that the nation's aggregate household debt stood at RM1.53 trillion between 2018 and 2023.
It is then followed by vehicle loans (13.2%), personal financing (12.6%) and loans for other purposes, including non-residential property purchases, credit card debt, securities and others.
Pang had asked the ministry to state the country's aggregate household debt from 2018 to 2023.
In aggregate, the ministry said the household debt amount for 2022 was RM1.45 trillion, followed by 2021 (RM1.38 trillion), 2020 (RM1.32 trillion), 2019 (RM1.25 trillion) and 2018 (RM1.19 trillion).
"The ratio of household debt to gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2023 also slightly increased to 84.2% compared to 2018 (82%)," it said.
It added that the average annual growth of household debt between 2018 and 2023 was 5.1%.
"This annual growth of household debt is primarily driven by housing loans and vehicle loans following various homeownership incentives offered by the government and the private sector, as well as sales and service tax (SST) incentives for motor vehicle purchases between 2020 and 2022," it said.
