KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 21): A total of 460,031 people had sought financial advice from Bank Negara Malaysia's Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency as at July 2016.

The figure had risen from 32,157 participants in 2007, according to the Finance Ministry's 2016/2017 Economic Report.

The agency is also known as Agensi Kaunseling dan Pengurusan Kredit (AKPK).

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). In 2007, 8,172 individuals had enrolled in the 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.

Financial difficulties also arose from unexpected circumstances like health problems, death of a breadwinner, employment loss and business failure, the ministry said.

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. Meanwhile, the Government needs to intensify efforts to enhance financial literacy, especially among the younger generation to create a financially-savvy society," the ministry said.