Malaysia sees alarming spike in youth bankruptcies as debt rises and wages stagnate

Fatin Anuar never imagined that managing just two credit cards would leave her battling months of financial anxiety.

The 25-year-old customer service worker in Kuala Lumpur initially saw them as a buffer for day-to-day spending and emergencies. It felt like a smart way to manage cash flow, she said, but the bills began creeping up until the debt felt like “a weight”.

“It kind of snuck up on me. I wasn’t really keeping track, and one day I looked at the statement and thought, ‘Okay, this is getting serious,’” she told This Week in Asia. She has since cleared one card but still owes about 3,000 ringgit (US$730) on the other.

“People say Gen Z spends too much and it’s a bit unfair,” she said. “Yes, we sometimes buy coffee or gadgets here and there, but a lot of spending is just about keeping up with life – rent, food, transport, student loans. But we’re not trying to be careless, we’re just trying to survive.”

Stories like Fatin’s are playing out across Malaysia as a generation of young workers contends with stagnant wages, rising living costs and the widespread availability of easy credit – pressures that are eroding financial safety nets and pushing more young people into debt long before they can find their footing.

  

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