By SHAFIQQUL ALIFF / pic by TMR FILE 

MALAYSIA’S gross financial assets growth rate remained markedly below the regional average, at 7.3%, according to Allianz Global Wealth Report 2021. 

In terms of net financial assets per capita, Malaysia ranks sixth in Asia behind China and 37th in international comparison. 

“Growth driver was the increase in securities with 10.6%. Life insurance and pension fund assets grew by 7.4% and deposits and by 4.2%,” the report stated. 

As a result, the share of life insurance and pension fund assets in the private households’ portfolio increased to almost 40%, while deposits and securities each amounted to around 30%. 

The report added that despite the Covid-19 crisis, gross financial assets of Asian households, excluding Japan, rose by a healthy 12.7% in 2020, even faster than in the already strong previous year (9.8%). 

All asset classes contributed to the rally with double-digit growth rates: Bank deposits clocked a growth of 12.3%, securities of 13.9% and insurance and pension of 11.4%. 

“The pandemic is a much bigger challenge for poorer countries”, Michaela Grimm, co-author of the report said. 

“Very likely, Covid-19 will continue to hold back economic development in this group of countries for much longer than in the advanced markets. 

But the real challenge comes afterwards: These countries will find themselves in a post-pandemic world that will make it increasingly difficult for them to play out their comparative advantages in a proven way, given the lasting changes in technologies, politics and lifestyles,” she added. 

“The gradual closing of the global prosperity gap — the defining development over the last decades — can no longer take for granted.”