KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — The country’s aggregate household debt stood at RM1.53 trillion at the end of 2023, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said.
In a written parliamentary reply yesterday, Anwar who is also the finance minister said housing loans made up the largest share of household debt at 60.5 per cent, followed by vehicle loans at 13.2 per cent, personal financing at 12.6 per cent and loans for other purposes including purchasing of non-residential property, credit card debt, security and others.
In aggregate, the total household debt for the previous years is as follows, 2022 (RM1.45 trillion), 2021 (RM1.38 trillion), 2020 (RM1.32 trillion), 2019 (RM1.25 trillion) and 2018 ( RM1.19 trillion).
The prime minister was responding to a question by DAP’s Labis MP Pang Hock Liong asking the government to state the country’s aggregate household debt for 2018 to 2023.
The prime minister added that the ratio of household debt to gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2023 increased slightly to 84.2 per cent compared to 2018 which stood at 82 per cent.
From 2018 to 2023, the average annual growth of household debt is 5.1 per cent.
This annual household debt growth is mainly driven by housing loans and vehicle loans following various home ownership incentives offered by the government and the private sector, as well as sales and service tax (SST) incentives for the purchase of motor vehicles between 2020 and 2022.
