National poverty line income revised to RM2,208

Malaysia's Poverty Line Income (PLI) has been revised to RM2,208, according to the calculations based on the 2019 methodology, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Previously, the PLI was calculated according to the 2005 methodology, which benchmarked poverty at RM980, based on the basic requirements for a household to live healthily and actively.

Chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the PLI revision was in accordance with current needs that emphasise optimal food intake and quality non-food basic requirements.

"Moreover, the classification of households into ten categories based on ten percentiles and household disposable income that can be used as one of the preferred measures in the analysis of income distribution and the alternative in measuring poverty, namely Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and Relative Poverty, are also available," he said.

He said this in a statement on the Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report and the Household Expenditure Survey Report Malaysia, 2019 released today.

Mohd Uzir said the incidence of absolute poverty improved from 7.6 percent in 2016 to 5.6 percent in 2019 and the hardcore poverty was at 0.4 percent in 2019 as compared to 0.6 percent in 2016.

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Editor's NOTE on HIBAS 2019:

Total Number of Households = 7.27 million

Absolute PLI of RM 2208 = 407,000 Households = 5.6%

Relative PLI of RM 2937 = 1,228,600 Households = 16.9%

A difference of RM729 increases poverty rate by 11.3%..!!!