KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Malaysians who earn a high income are looking forward to becoming richer as the country’s economic outlook looks grim, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research found in its 2022 second quarter consumer sentiment index survey.
“Consumers gave an unequivocally more downbeat assessment of their near-term finances than their current financial situation, and fewer of them are also expecting the labour market to pick up in the second half of 2022. Close to half of the respondents did not see any change in their incomes in the second quarter, those who believed that their financial position has worsened lately have risen to a four-quarter high of 39 per cent, the report said.“Financial expectations are at their worst in a year. While a four-quarter low of 17 per cent of the respondents are hopeful that their incomes will improve soon, 43 per cent foresee otherwise, the largest proportion tabulated since 1Q20,” MIER said.