Rich-poor gap in Vietnam widened: Survey
18/4/2005 15:13
The rich-poor gap is widening in Vietnam, according to a recent survey by
the country's General Statistics Office.
The top 10 percent of Vietnamese
households earn 13.5 times more than the bottom 10 percent, a gap that has
widened over the past decade, from 10.6 in 1996 to 12 in 1999 and 12.5 in 2001,
local newspaper Vietnam Investment Review on Monday quoted results from the
survey conducted in the 2003-2004 period as saying.
According to comments of
households questioned in the survey, 84 percent said their standard of living
had improved, 11.2 percent it was the same, and 4.8 percent said it had
decreased.
Despite the wide gap, overall incomes in both urban and rural
areas have risen. Between 2003 and 2004, the monthly income of an urban dweller
was 795,000 Vietnamese dong (VND) (US$50), up 27.7 percent against the 2001-2002
period, while that of a rural resident stood at 377,000 VND (about US$24), up
36.9 percent.
Vietnam's poverty rate fell to below 9 percent in 2004, down
from 37 percent in 1998 and 58 percent in 1993. The country, which currently has
a population of some 82.1 million with 74 percent living in rural areas, has
targeted to lower the rate to below 7 percent this year.
Xinhua News
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