Rich-poor income gap narrows in 1st half of 2021
The average income of Filipino families in the first half of 2021 increased by 0.2% to P149,980 from P149,710 in the same period in 2018, according to the preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2021 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES). The income gap between the richest and poorest decile groups was nine times larger in the first semester of 2021 from 10.1 times in the same period in 2018. Meanwhile, the average family expenditure was estimated at P113,670 during the January-June 2021, 5.9% lower than the P120,750 in 2018’s comparable period. The spending gap of the richest 10% and bottom 10% income households reached 5.8 times in 2021, higher than 5.3 times in 2018. The Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality among families, was at 0.4414 in the first half of 2021, smaller than the 0.4596 recorded in the first six months of 2018. Gini scores range from 0 (perfect income equality) to 1 (absolute income inequality).
