Opposition questions measurement methods in income survey

Santiago: Majority on the ground are not experiencing the feel-good factor as shown in the data which highlights the country’s economy as improving.

PETALING JAYA: DAP’s Charles Santiago wants Putrajaya to disclose the actual income gap between the top 10% of Malaysian earners and the bottom 40%, following the release of government data showing rising household income, declining poverty and decreasing income inequality.

The Klang MP said most Malaysians were “struggling to put food on the table” as prices of basic amenities were higher than their incomes.

“The majority on the ground are not experiencing the feel-good factor as shown in the data which highlights the country’s economy as improving,” he said.

Yesterday, the statistics department released the 2016 Report of Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey showing the median monthly household income for Malaysians increasing to RM5,228 in 2016 from RM4,585 in 2014, with growth rate of 6.6% per annum at nominal value.

Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan said it showed the income having grown in real value at 4.4%, indicating that household income grew faster than the inflation rate of 2.1% for the past two years.

“This debunks the popular notion that income in Malaysia is stagnant or income increment does not match the rising price of goods and services,” Rahman had said. He also said the overall incidence of poverty had improved from 0.6% in 2014 to 0.4% in 2016.

Santiago questioned the measurement methodology used in the survey.

He said the government should have two different statistics, one for the urban population and the other for the rural group.

He said it was presently combining the “food basket” to track consumer habits from both areas to average the prices.

“Obviously, the food basket in rural areas like in Kelantan is lower. They should not mix the statistics of urban and rural areas,” he told FMT.

Santiago also said the income denominator used by the department in measuring poverty levels should be higher.

“They should count from RM1,500 as benchmark. It would then show that more people are poorer. It would reflect the sentiments on the ground,” he said.

He added that any rise in productivity in certain sectors was not felt by the people due to lack of a pay rise.

“The prices of food continued to rise faster than salaries,” Santiago said.

Meanwhile, Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen said the people’s economic confidence was better measured by daily consumption trends rather than Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The 2.1% inflation rate cited by Rahman Dahlan does not reflect real ground sentiments, says Wong Chen.

The PKR lawmaker said the country’s improved GDP could have been driven by increased exports due to the weaker ringgit.

“So what we have is a mismatch between low consumption by the people and higher growth by exporters. This mismatch nudged GDP up but is not proof of economic happiness of the people.

“I am not sure how the statistics department came up with a 6.6% growth at nominal value of salaries. Did this growth result from the elimination of jobs?” he added.

He also said many Malaysians suffered economic anxieties in 2016.

“An estimated 50,000 people lost their jobs. It was also a year of very low car sales and property sales,” he said.

He said people generally felt poorer because of the GST and the price increase of basic items such as food.

“The 2.1% inflation rate cited by Rahman Dahlan does not reflect real ground sentiments,” he said. -FMT