WEALTH DISPARITY

Dr Lee Tsao Yuan asked the Minister for Trade and Industry whether there is any evidence of growing wealth disparity in Singapore.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Household income distribution in Singapore has remained quite stable. Economists use the gini coefficient to measure the extent to which the distribution of household income deviates from a situation of perfectly equal income distribution. This coefficient takes values from zero to one; the more unequal the income distribution, the larger the gini coefficient. For Singapore, the gini coefficient was 0.443 in 1995, similar to 0.436 in 1990.

From an international perspective, our measure of wealth disparity remained favourable (see Chart below). We fared better compared with Hong Kong and the United States which had showed noticeable increase in household income inequality in the 1990s. chart - Wealth Disparity