KUALA LUMPUR: The findings of a study to determine if more Malaysians had slipped from the M40 to the B40 income category will be known by the middle of this year, says Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.
“The government, through the Statistics Department, is finalising the Household Income, Expenditure and Basic Amenities Survey (HIES/BA) 2022 involving 92,000 households from January to December 2022.
“The income limit for each income group is being finalised through this study, and is expected to be published by the middle of this year,” he said in a written reply to a question raised by Datuk Azman Nasrudin (PN-Padang Serai) in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Azman had wanted to know how many Malaysians had slipped from their respective income groups, and what was being done to cushion the impact of rising costs.
Rafizi said that there were three main income groups, namely B40, M40 and T20.
Based on HIES/BA 2019, 40%, or 2.91 million households, were in the lower income (B40) group, with a monthly income of less than RM4,850.
He said that 40% of households, or RM2.91 million, were in the M40 group, with a monthly household income of between RM4,850 and RM10,959.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Rafizi said the Statistics Department estimated that 20% of households slipped from the M40 group to B40, while 12.8% from the T20 group slipped to M40 in 2020.
He also said several short- and long-term measures were announced under Budget 2023 to cushion the impact of rising costs.
