PUTRAJAYA - The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) dividend for 2009 is expected to be higher compared to the 4.5% paid out in the previous year.

EPF chairman Samsudin Osman said this was due to the local share market's stable position and good investment returns.

"A meeting on dividend rates will be held this month, while an announcement on it will be made in March," Bernama quoted him as saying today.

Samsudin, who is also Putrajaya Corporation president, had earlier presented prizes to winners of a fishing competition held in conjunction with Federal Territory Day celebrations.

More money to spread around

In December, EPF announced that it obtained RM5.5bil in profits in the third quarter last year, which was an increase of RM696.32mil (14.51%) compared to RM4.8bil in the previous quarter.

EPF chief executive officer Azlan Zainol said EPF funds had now increased to RM361.09bil compared with RM353.93bil in the second quarter last year.

For the year 2008, 12 million EPF members received a dividend of 4.5%, which was lower than the 5.8% for 2007.