PARLIAMENT Malaysia has lower levels of income inequality than other Asian countries such as Japan, China and Singapore, according to Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Razali Ibrahim.

He said this during question time in parliament today in refuting claims that wealth in Malaysia is poorly distributed, responding to a query by Othman Abdul (Umno-Pendang).

He said Malaysia has a Gini coefficient of 0.421, based on preliminary data on household income in 2014.

The figures for 2009 and 2012 are 0.441 and 0.431 respectively, meaning that there has been an improvement since then.

In comparison, the Gini index in Japan is 0.488, Singapore is 0.478, and China is 0.474.

A lower coefficient denotes a higher level of income equality, where a coefficient of 0.0 would indicate perfect income equality, while a coefficient of 1.0 would indicate that only one person has all the income in the entire population.

Meanwhile, when calculated based on expenditure, Razali said Malaysia’s Gini coefficient in 2010 is 0.337, compared to Indonesia’s 0.381, Thailand’s 0.394, and Philippine’s 0.430.

"This shows that the inequality measured based on income or expenditure in Malaysia is better that several countries in Asia.

"Nevertheless the government is aware that income inequality still exists, and therefore the government will continue to take steps to reduce inequality and close (income) gap by raising the income and quality of life of the people, especially among households that are in the ‘bottom 40 percent’ income earners," he added.

'Poverty eradication programmes are working'

To another question from Othman, Razali said bumiputras make up 73.3 percent of the ‘bottom 40 percent’, or 2.5 million households.

However, he said the government’s poverty eradication programmes are working, and there has been a 9.9 percent increase in their income.

In comparison, he said the ‘middle 40 percent’s’ income only increased by 8.0 percent, while the ‘top 20 percent’s’ income increased by 7.4 percent.

“With the higher income growth rate among the ‘bottom 40 percent’, it gives some indication that our programmes are on track,” he said.

However, the deputy minister did not mention the time period in which the income growth figures took place.