Despite the challenging financial environment, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has declared a dividend rate of 5.35% for conventional savings and 4.75% for shariah accounts for 2022.

Although it is much lower than that given out for 2021, the rates are said to be fairly reasonable considering it was in the recovery period after the Covid-19 pandemic.

For 2021, it gave out 6.10% for conventional savings and 5.65% for shariah accounts.

The payout for conventional savings is RM45.44 billion and RM5.7 billion for shariah savings, bringing the total dividend to RM51.14 billion.

EPF Chief Executive Officer Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said during the fund's annual dividend announcement on Saturday (March 4) that the assets under management (AUM) remained stable despite the withdrawals coming up to RM145 bil.

He added that EPFs investment assets remain intact and closed at RM1.003 trillion in December 2022, which is a slight reduction of 0.7% from the RM1.01 trillion in 2021.