Today, the Finance Ministry said of the 460,031 individuals in 2016, 156,892 or 34.1% had enrolled in AKPK’s Debt Management Programme (DMP). The Finance Ministry, citing AKPK data, said factors contributing to participants' inability to repay their debts included poor financial planning and lack of financial discipline. Poor financial planning accounted for the largest portion or 50.8% of consumer debt-default cases as at July 2016, followed by business slowdown and failure at 15.2%, according to the ministry. The ministry said: "AKPK is an important platform to enable the rakyat to enhance their knowledge on prudent financial management." "Moving forward, it is important for the rakyat to be aware of the need to manage their finances wisely and prudently.

Source: The Edge Markets October 21, 2016 08:15 UTC