Rising inequality between rich and poor grew by leaps and bounds over the last two years, with people in the richest 10 percent earning 42 times as much money as those in the poorest 10 percent, a report said yesterday.
According to figures from the nation's top number crunchers -- the Cabinet-level Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS,
The DGBAS found that the average income of the top 10 percent of families was 42.17 times that of the lowest 10 percent last year, and 23.72 times higher two years ago, the paper said.
Per capita figures this year show the nation's top income-earning families will take home on average NT$1.33 million (US$42,820), while the bottom 10 percent will walk away at year's end with NT$31,500 (US$1,014).
The DGBAS attributed the widening gap to the profitable high-tech industry, whose employees enjoyed both rising salaries and bonuses each year.
Meanwhile, employees in traditional industries such as cement, textiles and steel witnessed little growth in income.
Also to blame for the growing income gap is the increase in unemployment and in the growing number of people aged over 65, DGBAS data showed.
Unemployment for the first seven months of this year through July averaged 2.85 percent.
While the government has sought for decades to make equitable distribution of income an economic objective, previously such plans have met with little success. More recently, the new DPP administration appears to be less focused on distribution of wealth and more fixed on social welfare expenditure -- which according to critics is being done at the expense of economic development.
According to DGBAS officials, social welfare will be the top expenditure in its 2001 fiscal budget proposal. Nearly one-fifth of the first fiscal budget by the new administration will be spent on the sector.
DGBAS officials said social welfare expenditure would be 18.8 percent of its budget proposal, followed by 16.3 percent on education, science and culture and 15.5 percent on national defense.
Expenditure on economic development is down to 13.1 percent, or 2.5 percentage points lower than last year.
Market watchers said the cut in economic development expenditure in the first fiscal budget of the new administration signifies that the new administration is placing more emphasis on social welfare instead of economic development.
DGBAS officials rebuffed such criticism and said that the expenditure on public construction of the 2001 budget proposal is NT$168.6 billion more than the previous year and it would be beneficial to next year's economic development.
According to revised figures, DGBAS officials said the total fiscal expenditure for 2001 budget would be NT$1.6082 trillion, up 6.3 percent over last year.
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