Households in the bottom 20 percent of the nation’s five income quintiles were not able to make ends meet last year, with the gap between their disposable incomes and expenditure reaching NT$19,224 on average, according to government statistics.
The average disposable income of households in the lowest income bracket was NT$320,312 (US$10,104) last year, while expenditure averaged NT$339,536, according to data released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).
The deficit in household budgets for the poorest 20 percent of the nation’s households first appeared in 2007, when the disposable income of households in the bracket averaged NT$312,145, while expenditures averaged NT$313,309, leaving a shortfall of NT$1,164, DGBAS data show.
Since then, the poorest 20 percent have reported a deficit each year, with the number reaching as high as NT$29,308 in 2011, the data showed.
Last year, Taiwan had 8.39 million households, whose total income of NT$10.27 trillion represented 2.1 percent growth from 2014, government statistics show.
DGBAS divides households into five income categories, with each category comprising about 1.677 million households. The average disposable income of the top 20 percent reached NT$1.94 million last year, representing growth of 1.03 percent year-on-year, while the income of the bottom 20 percent increased 1 percent annually, the statistics show.
The top 20 percent of households saved an average of NT$670,669 last year, higher than the disposable income of 40 percent of the nation’s households, the data show.
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