Mr. Danucha Pitchayanon, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) and spokesperson for the NESDC, held a press conference to clarify the case of The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2018, which ranked Thailand as the country with the highest inequality in the world. He stated that Thailand is not the most unequal country globally. The report's conclusion was based on wealth distribution, using data on wealth ownership, which currently has complete data for only 35 countries out of 133, mostly developed countries such as the UK, Japan, China, Sweden, South Korea, and Singapore, while Thailand has not yet collected such data.

 

 

 

 

The report utilized Thailand's income distribution data, which has been collected since 2006, to calculate wealth ownership and employed economic estimates based on the assumption that wealth distribution correlates with income distribution, resulting in a rough estimate. The report clearly states this limitation, indicating that it cannot fully reflect the inequality situation in Thailand.

 

However, the NESDC has been monitoring the inequality situation in Thailand since 1988, collecting data according to World Bank standards through the GINI coefficient index, which is an international standard used to measure 110 countries worldwide, assessing both income and expenditure on a scale from 0 to 1, where lower values indicate reduced inequality.

 

According to the latest data from 2015, Thailand's GINI coefficient is 0.36, ranking 40th out of 67 countries, improving from 46th out of 73 countries globally in 2013. However, the number of countries varies each year due to data limitations from different countries. When compared to developed countries like the UK with a GINI of 0.33 or the United States with a GINI of 0.41, Thailand's figures are not significantly different.

 

"Our numbers are not significantly different from other countries, so we are not the country with the highest inequality as reported," Mr. Danucha stated.

 

Mr. Danucha also mentioned that the calculation of Thailand's GINI index is based on data from the National Statistical Office's survey of household economic and social conditions, covering 52,010 households, with income surveyed every two years and expenditure surveyed annually. Over the past decade, inequality has been continuously decreasing. The latest data from 2017 shows that Thailand's GINI coefficient for income is 0.453, down from 0.499 in 2007, while for expenditure, it is 0.364, down from 0.398 in 2007.

 

Furthermore, the income disparity between the highest and lowest income groups has been narrowing, decreasing from 25.10 times in 2007 to 19.29 times in 2017. Similarly, the expenditure disparity between the highest and lowest expenditure groups has also decreased, from 11.70 times in 2008 to 9.32 times in 2017.

 

Mr. Danucha emphasized that the inequality situation in Thailand, based on actual data and standard measurement methods from the World Bank, indicates that Thailand does not have the highest inequality. On the contrary, both income and expenditure inequality in Thailand are showing a trend of improvement.

 

At the same time, addressing and reducing inequality is a priority for the government, which has been continuously implementing various measures to increase income for low-income populations and distribute income fairly among different groups to reduce inequality.

Moreover, under the national strategy, Thailand aims to reduce the income gap between the highest and lowest income populations to no more than 15 times, down from the current 19 times, or achieve a GINI coefficient for income at the level of 0.36 by the year 2037.

 

"Therefore, the current situation regarding inequality in Thailand is improving gradually. However, it is a matter that requires continuous effort to ensure fair income distribution among all groups of people," Mr. Danucha stated.

 

Thank you for the information from thaipublica.org