SHAH ALAM: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) saw a drop in its assets under management (AUM) for the first time since 1985 in 2022.
"This is the first year we saw a drop in AUM. It was a marginal drop," said EPF chief executive officer Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan on Saturday (March 4).
He said among the reasons was the withdrawals of RM145.5bil through four schemes as well as market conditions.
ALSO READ: EPF withdrawals larger than GDP of some countries, says fund's CEO
He said the focus was now to generate adequate returns for 2023.
"If we cannot generate, where do we place the assets? That is why the asset generation is very important," he said.
He noted that the "world was still in a very choppy space" and central banks were worried about inflation.
He said the EPF had been buying and diversifying its assets whenever conducive opportunities arose.
EPF's investment assets totalled at RM1.003 trillion in December 2022, a reduction of 0.7% from RM1.01 trillion in 2021.