By Aidila Razak
Malaysian households took home close to RM1,000 more per month last year compared to 2009, a government survey on incomes found.
The Department of Statistics Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey 2012 found that Malaysian households earned an average RM5,000 a month last year, up a significant 24 percent from 2009 when the same survey was last conducted. This about tracks the growth of overall gross national income (GNI).
The figures mean that each person in a Malaysian household (assuming 4.2 persons per household) took home an average of RM1,190.50 a month in 2012, up by RM254 a month in 2009. This works out to RM14,286 per year.
The figure, however, is about a third of the RM48,000 annual GNI per capita high income target which the Performance Management and Delivery Unit believes can be hit by 2018.
The GNI per capita income target set includes incomes of corporations and businesses plus net income from abroad.
The income growth from 2009 to 2012, however, was higher in the cities, with rural household average monthly income lagging by close to more than RM2,600. Urban households earned on average RM5,742 a month while rural households earned RM3,080.
Those living in the Kuala Lumpur area enjoyed the largest income growth, earning RM3,000 more than the national average in 2009. Annual growth rate was also double the national rate.
The surge in the incomes of KL-ites pulled up the national average, with most other states registering average monthly income lower than the RM5,000 national average in 2012.
Average monthly household income in 2012 was lowest in Kelantan at RM3,168, but the state saw incomes grew at a significant rate of 7.4 percent every year.
Among states whose household incomes grew at a slower rate of 4 to 5 percent are Penang, Melaka and Pahang.
Hardcore poverty gone in four states
The survey, conducted on 44,000 households nationwide also shows that hardcore poverty has been wiped out in Penang, Federal Territory of Labuan, Selangor and Melaka while only 0.1 to 1.1 percent of residents there are poor.
Asked at the briefing in Putrajaya if this reflected the true picture in the states, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nor Mohamad Yakcop who presented the findings said: “This is the reality.”
He also pointed out that no one attending the briefing in the administrative capital can be considered poor as “Putrajaya had attained zero poverty status in 2012”.
Sabah residents remained the poorest in the nation, with close to 10 percent poor. Of that 1.6 percent are hardcore poor in 2012. In 2009, about a quarter of people in Sabah were poor.
Nationwide, Nor Mohamad said that the number of poor families have been halved to about 100,0000 in 2012 compared to 2009.
There was also no more hardcore poor ethnic Chinese people in the country, while the Bumiputera make up the largest portion of poor people.
The Gini coefficient which measures income disparity dropped in the Bumiputera and Chinese communities, but disparity grew among the Indians.
The poverty line for West Malaysia is RM830 per household, Sabah and Labuan RM1,090 and Sarawak RM920. Hardcore poor families are those in urban areas earning RM450 a month and RM420 in rural areas.
The Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey 2012 full report will be released in June.
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