The government is satisfied with the per capita income of all Malaysians, Dewan Rakyat was told today.

In a parliamentary written reply, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that Malaysians' per capita income has increased over the years.

He also said that the increase has contributed to the betterment of the people's quality of living in the long run.

"For instance, in 1975, Malaysian's per capita income was only RM815 and it has increased to RM1,172 in 1970.

"In 2006, the per capita income was RM19,739," said Abdullah, who is also the Finance Minister.

Abdullah also explained that poverty rate has also been reducing since 1970.

"In 1970, it stood at 50 percent. Whereas, in 2004, it was at 5.7 percent and we predict further reduction to 2.8 percent in 2010," he said.

Abdullah was responding to a query from M Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) who asked the Prime Minister to state whether the government was satisfied with the per capita income of the people.

The premier also revealed the per capita income according states for 2005 ( see chart ).

According to the premier's statistics Kelantan ranked the lowest with RM7,500, followed by Kedah (RM11,161), Sabah (RM11,414) and Perlis (RM12,302).

The state with the highest per capita income was capital city Kuala Lumpur with RM 36, 597, followed by Penang (RM27,391), Terengganu (RM27,140) and Selangor (RM23,333).