Poorest 20% living beyond their means in Taiwan: DGBAS data

Households in the bottom 20 percent of the five income quintiles in Taiwan were not able to make ends meet in 2015, with the gap between their disposable income and consumption expenditure reaching an average NT$19,224 (US$607) that year, according to government statistics.

The average disposable income of the lowest 20 percent quintile was NT$320,312 last year, while its final consumption expenditure reached NT$339,536 on average, according to the data released by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) Aug. 19.

The figures show that each of the lowest 20 percent had a deficit of NT$19,244 for the year.

The "minus saving" condition first appeared in 2007, when the disposable income of the lowest 20 percent was NT$312,145, while its final consumption expenditure stood at NT$313,309, posing a deficit of NT$1,164 in income over expenditure, DGBAS data shows.

Since then, the poorest 20 percent have suffered a shortfall each year, which grew as high as NT$29,308 in 2011, the data shows.

Last year, Taiwan had 8.39 million households, whose total income reached NT$10.27 trillion, a growth of 2.1 percent from the previous year, the latest government statistics show.

Dividing the households into five income categories, each category represents 1.677 million households.

The average disposable income of the top 20 percent reached NT$1.94 million in 2015, representing a 1.03 year-on-year growth, while that of the bottom 20 percent registered a 1 percent year-on-year rise, the tallies show.

The top 20 percent posed an average saving of NT$670,669 per household last year, higher than the disposable income of 40 percent of the households in the country, the DGBAS data indicates.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel