Debated in Parliament on 1 Apr 2019.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Finance (a) what is the Gini coefficient of Singapore for each year in the past 10 years when capital income is taken into account; (b) if such data is not available, whether inclusion of capital income is likely to increase or decrease Singapore's Gini coefficient; and (c) whether the Ministry will take into account capital income when reporting Singapore's Gini coefficient.
Mr Speaker, Singapore computes the Gini coefficient based on household income from work. This data is available annually and enables the timely tracking of income inequality.
Collecting income data from sources other than work is more challenging. Such data are typically collected based on self-reporting by respondents and are more susceptible to measurement errors. This is why the Department of Statistics has thus far not included such data in its computation of the Gini coefficient.
Nevertheless, the Government will continue to explore ways to better measure and monitor income inequality. Regardless of the measurement issues, our approach remains to keep our social support measures progressive and targeted at the lower and middle income households.
Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister for the reply. I do understand that we do include capital income once every five years in terms of our calculation for our Gini coefficient. If we can do it once every five years, why not do it every year? I also understand that, for example, all the other OECD countries do include capital income. So, why does Singapore not include this?
Mr Speaker, I should clarify. I think Mr Louis Ng is mistaken. We do have surveys of income other than work in the household expenditure survey. It is not part of the Gini coefficient computation. So, that income is covered in the household expenditure survey which is done once every five years. As I have said just now, collecting data on income other than work is always fraught with issues, not just for us but for other countries as well. But we are continuing to see how the data can be better captured.
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