KUALA LUMPUR – Almost a fifth of KL residents worse off financially in last 12 months

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 16.2% of respondents polled in a recent survey here said they were worse off financially in the last 12 months, according to the UCSI Poll Research Centre’s consumer sentiment index.

The consumer sentiment index also showed that almost 100 of the 531 residents surveyed in Kuala Lumpur viewed the current economic situation as a hindrance to their financial growth.

The survey, which is the first to be conducted in Malaysia, showed 52.2% of the respondents experiencing zero financial growth in the last 12 months.

On the other hand, 31.6% of the respondents saying they were better off financially compared to a year ago.

“Factors found in the qualitative approach affecting their negative sentiment vary from a high living cost, a low wage growth, a mismatch of skilled workers in the labour market, to a perceived negative-income distribution,” the pollster’s chief executive Assistant Professor Dr Noppadon Kanika told Bernama.

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When asked about their expectation in the next 12 months, 47.1% of the respondents felt they would remain financially stagnated; 34.6% expected to be better off; and 18.3% predicted a gloomier outlook.

Noppadon said the majority of respondents expected business owners and investors to experience a positive year ahead, and many of them felt that they would be better off.

The UCSI Poll Research Centre’s both qualitative and quantitative approaches were conducted between May 13 and 22.

The survey took a sample of 531 people targeting those living in Kuala Lumpur. — Bernama