Survey : Vietnam's rich-poor gap widens
The income of 20 percent of Vietnamese richest households was 8.4 times higher than that of 20 percent of local poorest households in 2006, up from 8.3 times in 2004, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Thursday.
The spending of the richest households on housing, electricity and hygiene was 8.8 times higher than that of the poorest, the newspaper quoted results of a survey of Vietnam's households in 2006 by the country's General Statistics Office.
The difference for spending on household appliances was 7.2 times, education 5.2, transport 12.1, and culture, sports and entertainment 69.8. The poorest had to spend over 50 percent of their income on food, while the richest roughly 44 percent.
The statistics office's figures show that some 61 million people, or 72.9 percent of the Vietnamese population, lived in rural areas in 2006.
Vietnam's per capita income rose to 835 dollars in 2007 from 423 dollars in 2001, and the percentage of households living in poverty declined to 14.7 percent in 2007 from 28.9 percent in 2002.
Xinhua - January 10, 2007.
|