Singapore’s income gap narrowed in 2016 with growth of median household income

SINGAPORE (Feb 16): Not only was Singapore’s Gini coefficient, a measure of income disparity, the lowest in a decade at 0.458 in 2016 – it fell even further to 0.402 after adjusting for government transfers and taxes, according to Singapore’s Department of Statistics.

A reading of 1 means a single person in a country gets everything, while 0 means everyone has the same income.

In a Thursday press release that detailed the city state’s key household income trends in 2016, the Department of Statistics says the significant decline in Gini coefficient reflects the distributive effect of government transfers, where resident households received $4,168 per household member on average from various government schemes.

---

Related Stories

• Can SGX afford to wait up to a year for reforms?
• Institutions to edge further into digital finance, focus on risk mitigation: Moody’s Ratings
• RHB raises target price for SGX to $12.80 from $11.40, citing higher than expected trading volume

---