When the pandemic hit, Bank Negara cut the Overnight Policy Rate to a record-low 1.75% to keep credit cheap. Fixed deposits track the OPR closely, so the average 6-month FD rate followed it straight down — bad news if you were relying on FD interest for income.
Since then the picture has reversed. As BNM lifted the OPR back to 3.00% through 2022–2023 to keep inflation in check, FD rates climbed with it. The latest 6-month average sits at 2.31%, up from a pandemic low of 1.63% — recovering most of the ground lost during the cheap-money years.
What it means for your wallet: locking in a 6-month FD today earns meaningfully more than it did three years ago, but the gap over inflation is still thin. Before you lock up cash, check whether a flexible high-yield savings account or ASNB is paying competitively — and remember that when the OPR next falls, FD rates will follow it down again. The lesson from this chart is that FD income is a rate-cycle bet, not a fixed promise.