Household income inequality in Taiwan widened last year due to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Friday.
DGBAS data showed that the average disposable income among the top 20 percent of households was NT$2.18 million (US$78,248) last year, up 1.8 percent from 2019, while the average for the bottom 20 percent was NT$355,000, up 1.4 percent.
The figure for the top 20 percent was 6.13 times higher than the figure for the bottom 20 percent, compared with 6.1 times higher in 2019, the data showed.
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The household income difference was the largest in eight years, the agency said.
DGBAS Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) said that household income inequality increased because disadvantaged groups were disproportionately affected by pandemic-related pay cuts or unpaid leave programs.
Without government measures to reduce the gap, the top 20 percent would have 7.43 times more income than the bottom 20 percent, Chu said, referring to living subsidies and social insurance subsidies.
Household spending totaled NT$7.2 trillion last year, down 0.6 percent from a year earlier, or average household spending was NT$815,000, down 1.7 percent year-on-year, the DGBAS said.
However, average household savings rose 14.8 percent from a year earlier to NT$265,000 last year, DGBAS data showed.
The double-digit increase in savings reflected a fall in leisure spending at a time when border controls prompted people to cut overseas trips and many increased efforts to save money, the DGBAS said.
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