KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 — Malaysia has recorded a consistent decline in income distribution gaps based on various economic indices and indicators, said Deputy Economy Minister Datuk Mohd Shahar Abdullah.
He said the latest statistics from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey Report 2024 showed that the country’s Gini coefficient improved to 0.390 points in 2024 from 0.404 points in 2022.
“This is in line with the narrowing trend of the income distribution gap,” he said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Shahar was replying to a question from Zahir Hassan (Harapan-Wangsa Maju) regarding the government’s plans to expand the interpretation of economic inequality beyond traditional measures.
Commenting on the use of the Theil index as a quantitative measurement tool, he said there are significant changes in inequality across various income categories.
“The findings show that gross household income (based on the Theil index) recorded a decline to 0.287 in 2024 from 0.303 in 2022,” he said.
In addition, he said the government uses the Atkinson index to account for the community’s sensitivity to income gaps, especially for low-income groups.
“Other analyses include the percentile dispersion ratio, which compares income between the top 10 per cent (T10) and the bottom 10 per cent (B10), as well as the Palma ratio to see the difference between the T10 and B40 groups,” he said.
The use of these indicators allows the government to make decisions based on more accurate data according to ethnicity, state, and strata (urban and rural), added Shahar.
