| Summary: | A report by Khazanah Research Institute on the State of Households in 2015 revealed that
majority of Malaysian households owned items such as cars, motorcycles, refrigerators,
televisions, mobile phones, satellite TVs and internet subscriptions and that most low-income
households acquired these items and services on credit. The report further concluded that this
trend was also accompanied by low personal savings. While strong income growth has in
turn, helped alleviate poverty and added to the legions of the middle-income, incidentally,
this has fuelled consumption; with households increasingly use debt for spending.
Interestingly, low-income households do not only have low personal savings due to high
consumption, but low personal savings due to high consumption of assets (productive and
non productive) that act as buffers against any unanticipated events such as loss of job or
income. By using a structured questionnaire on 300 low-income households, the objectives of
the study are (i) to examine the consumption-savings pattern of low-income households and
(ii) to assess the consumption-savings pattern between genders. Low-income households are
identified as households earning MYR 3,600 per month. Data gathered on personal savings
include cash savings, savings for pilgrimage, gold, kut (rotational savings scheme),
community death benefits, land and property
|
|---|