20% Of M40 Malaysians Dropped To Low Income Group Due to Covid-19, Says PM

That’s 580,000 households which have seen a drop in income group.

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Around 580,000 M40 households are now in the B40 income group due to the pandemic’s debilitating effects on the economy, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He was quoted by Malay Mail mentioning that around 20% of M40 households with incomes between RM4,850 and RM10,959 have shifted to the B40 group.

Covid-19 also affected the incidence of absolute poverty rate which has risen from 5.6% to 8.4%, he said in a written response to Kesavan Subramaniam (PH-Sungai Siput) and Natrah Ismail (PH-Sekijang).

Covid affecting poverty income line

Ismail Sabri mentioned that the government will update the Poverty Line Income (PGK) next year along with the 2022 Household Income Expenditure Survey (HIES) and Basic Amenities (BA) survey.

Sinar Harian quoted the Prime Minister who said that the PGK currently used is based on the PGK, HIES and BA methodology in 2019.

By using this, it was determined that the national PGK is around RM2,209 monthly, compared to the 2016’s PGK (RM980 monthly), which used the 2005 methodology.

It was also revealed that the incidence of absolute poverty increased to 8.4% last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) from 5.6% in 2019.

Based on this study, the incidence of absolute poverty has increased to 8.4% from 5.6% in the same period. However, this study did not produce a new PGK value as the 2019 PGK value is still maintained.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob via Sinar Harian

As for the absolute poverty rate, Ismail Sabri said that it is at 5.6% (405,441 households) in 2019 compared to 7.6% (525,743 households) in 2016.

The urban poverty rate is 3.8% and the rural poverty rate is 12.4% for 2019.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob via Astro Awani

PGK is calculated based on the amount of income required by a household to meet the minimum food and non-food requirements to live healthy and active in society.

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Hakim Hassan

Unkempt in both stories and appearance, Hakim loves tech but tech left him on read, previously he used to write about tall buildings and unoccupied spaces that he can't afford, and legend has it that he still can't afford it to this day