More than 71 percent of households earn more than RM3,000 per month - Abdul Wahid

Some 71.3 percent of households in the country are earning more than RM3,000 per month, an increase from the 61.3 percent registered in 2012.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said, although this is a positive improvement, the Government is still not comfortable as 28.7 percent or two million out of the seven million households in the country are still earning less than RM3,000 per month.

“The Government would still continue to implement the economic transformation agenda to boost the country’s economic growth in order to create new high paying jobs and business opportunities for the people.

The Government will also continue to focus on social development aspects and take necessary measures to help ease the burden due to the increase in cost of living including the distribution of BR1M and providing more affordable housing and other facilities such as the Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia and 1Malaysia clinics,” he said.

Abdul Wahid was replying to a question from Datuk Irmohizam Ibraim (BN, Kuala Selangor) who wanted to know the extent of the salary movement or the people’s income in line with the increase in the average cost of living in view of the fact that the New Economic Model (NPE) is focusing on increasing the people’s per capita income by 2020.

In the meantime, Abdul Wahid said, under the NPE, the country will achieve a developed nation status by 2020 through three main components which are High Income, Inclusiveness and Sustainability.

“The high income target refers to the Gross National Income per capita of RM49,000 (USD15,000) according to the current exchange rate.

“The inclusive component means we want to ensure that all segments of society benefit from the country’s economic growth. At the macro level, among others, we will measure the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“In the five years between 2008 and 2013, our economy grew at a rate of 5.1 percent per annum, while the total wage increased by 8.0 percent per annum. This caused the ratio or percentage of wages to GDP to increase from 29.3 percent from 2008 to 33.6 percent in 2013,” he said.

Abdul Wahid added, at the household level, the average household income had increased from RM4,025 in 2009 to RM5,000 in 2012 and RM5,919 in 2014.

“The median income rate meanwhile increased from RM2,830 in 2009 to RM3,626 in 2012 and RM4,258 in 2014. This is an increase of 8 percent per annum from 2009 to 2014.

“The consumer price index rose from 98.3 to 110, an increase of 2.3 percent per annum,” he said. As such, Abdul Wahid said, this shows that the increase in household income is higher compared to the inflation rate during the past five years.