With the nation’s widening income gap attracting increased public scrutiny in the wake of recently released data, the Cabinet yesterday said the gap was relatively small compared with that in other countries or regions such as the US, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“When we look at it objectively, the rich-poor gap in Taiwan is not serious,” Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) told a press conference following a Cabinet meeting.
According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the income gap between the richest 20 percent of families in Taiwan and the poorest 20 percent rose from 6.05 times in 2008, to 8.22 times, the second-highest since records began.
Minister without Portfolio Ovid Tseng (曾志朗) was quoted by Liu as saying that he was invited to attend at an international conference to showcase how Taiwan has succeeded in bringing income inequality under control, adding that Taiwan was recognized as a model in this regard.
Other Cabinet members attributed the impression that the wealth gap problem had become more severe to the index used by the DGBAS, Liu said.
James Hsueh (薛承泰), another minister without portfolio, was quoted by Liu as saying that the changing population structure within households was a reason why the index is “biased.”
The average number of people per household in the poorest 20 percent is 1.89 and 50 percent of that group is above the age of 50, while the average number of people per household in the richest 20 percent is 4.3 and only 10 percent of that group is above the age of 65, Hsueh said.
“[The figures] show that in the poorest 20 percent of households, there is maybe only one middle aged and senior person making money, while in the richest 20 percent households, there are three or four sources of income from younger people,” Liu said.
Liu said the government’s welfare policies had actually narrowed the income gap.
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