Govt to update poverty line - minister

The government will update the poverty line based on the findings of the Household Income, Expenditure, and Basic Amenities Survey 2022, Mustapa Mohamed.

The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) said the survey is being carried out by the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

He said the survey, aimed at studying household income and expenditure patterns as well as poverty statistics down to the district level, is expected to be published next March.

He said the survey was launched earlier this year and will be conducted for a year involving 92,000 selected households.

“It will take into account income, expenditure, demand patterns, and prices of goods and services including the impact of the increase in cost of living,” he said at the Dewan Negara sitting today.

Mustapa (above) was responding to a question from Senator Koh Nai Kwong.

Koh wanted to know the government's plan to recalculate the poverty line by taking into account the people's income, savings, education, health, and other dimensions after the country’s transition into the endemic phase.

Mustapa said the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) of the Prime Minister's Department also collects poverty data based on the eKasih system.

He added that as of July 31, 136,923 households are in the extreme poor category while 308,699 households are categorised as poor.

“ICU collects this data in collaboration with district and state government offices. Data cleanup is being carried out from time to time,” he said.

Poverty line RM2.2k in 2019

Meanwhile, he said the poverty line increased to RM2,208 per month in 2019 in contrast to RM980 per month in 2016.

He said the household income for the extreme poor stood at RM1,169 per month in 2019, adding that the absolute poverty rate was 5.6 percent and the extreme poor was 0.4 percent in 2019.

“The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have caused the rate of absolute poverty and extreme poverty to increase to 8.4 percent and 1.0 percent respectively in 2020,” he said.

Mustapa also said the country’s relative poverty rate stood at 16.2 percent in 2020.

Elaborating, he said relative poverty measures the number of households earning below 50 percent of the median income of RM5,209 per month.

The government also measures poverty using the Multidimensional Poverty Index to include other dimensions such as education, health, living standards, and income, he said.

- Bernama