MOST consumers managed to maintain their credit repayments over the last two Covid-19 impacted years, according to the Experian state of credit 2021 report.

       Individual credit worthiness saw a slight lift with the average credit score rising 18 points from 601 in 2019, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, to 619 in 2021 in Malaysia.

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       This is the highest average i-SCORE over the last four years.

       The report looked at the credit performance of consumers across the country, highlighting consumer credit scores and borrowing behaviours in relation to credit.

       The scoring is normally used by lenders to find out the creditworthiness of an individual before approving or rejecting a laon application.The percentage of individuals with 90 days past due (DPD) date for credit payment decreased by 0.7% from 2.5% in 2018 to 1.8% in 2021.

       Those aged 22 to 28 years have the highest average DPD across all four years but showed a decrease from 6.2% to 3.8%, according to the report.

       However, it adds that young adults have been struggling more than the other age groups during the pandemic.

       This is so since they are in their early stages of their careers with more modest income and savings compared with their older peers.

       Unemployment had also struck this segment particularly hard over the past two years.

       But the government’s intervention, through loan moratoriums and other support measures, may have contributed positively besides behavioural changes among Malaysians towards conservative spending during the challenging economic climate, it says.