The Impression M'sia Has Bad Income Disparity Gap Imbalance Is Untrue

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 (Bernama) -- The impression that Malaysia has an unacceptable income disparity gap in Asia is untrue, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Razali Ibrahim. He said based on the Gini Co-efficient index the income gap was down from 0.441 in 2009 to 0.431 in 2012 and to 0.421 (based on preliminary data obtained fHousehold Income Investigation) in 2014. He said the value was much lower as compared to several Asian nations including Japan with Gini income disparity in 2009 at 0.488, Singapore 0.478 in 2012 and China 0.474 in 2012. "Meanwhile, if we use the spending indicator, the national Gini income disparity is 0.337 based on the Household Expenditure Survey (HES) 2010, which recorded a lower reading compared to several other Asian countries," he said. He was replying to a question from Othman Abdul about whether the government was aware that Malaysia had a bad national wealth distribution disparity indicator in Asia, in the Dewan Rakyat (lower house of Parliament) here Tuesday. Razali said the Gini co-efficient expenditure indicator was 0.381 for Indonesia in 2011, Thailand was 0.394 in 2010 and Philippines recorded 0.430 in 2009. "This shows that the imbalance based on income measurement and expediture in Malaysia is better than several nations in Asia," he added. Nevertheless, he said the government was aware income disparity still existed and would continue to take action to close the gap by boosting income and quality of life of the people, especially in the 40 per cent of households with the lowest income. -- BERNAMA