Minister Lim Hng Kiang's written reply on the Computation of the Gini Coefficient

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Question:

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) if he can provide the data used in the computation of the Gini coefficient and key household income trends for citizens; and (b) what is the Gini coefficient for the last five years, excluding permanent residents from the computation.

Written Reply by Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Trade and Industry:

Among citizen employed households, the median monthly household income from work per household member increased from $1,860 in 2011 to $1,990 in 2012. This represents a 7.2 per cent increase in nominal terms, and 2.4 per cent in real terms.

Over a longer period, from 2007 to 2012, the cumulative increase in median monthly household income from work per household member for citizen employed households was 13.9 per cent in real terms, higher than the 7.9 per cent in the preceding five-year period. Most deciles of citizen employed households saw higher growth in real monthly household income from work per household member between 2007 and 2012, compared to the preceding five-year period.

In 2012, the Gini coefficient for citizen employed households was 0.467.

[1]

  After adjusting for Government transfers and taxes, the Gini coefficient declined by 0.022 to 0.445 in 2012, reflecting the redistributive effect of Government transfers. The Gini coefficient (both before and after adjusting for Government transfers and taxes) for citizen employed households was also lower than that for resident employed households in 2012, indicating lower income inequality among citizen employed households. The coefficients for the last five years are provided in Exhibit A1.

Exhibit A1: Gini Coefficient among Citizen and Resident Employed Households, 2007-2012

Source: Department of Statistics

[1]

Computed on a per household member basis.