Poverty Reduction in Malaysia

At the national level, Malaysia has achieved the MDG objective of halving extreme poverty since1990. In 1990, the national poverty rate was 17%. By 2000, it had been reduced to 8%, and in 2009, despite the global financial and economic crisis, the national poverty rate was below 4%. The same is true for both urban and rural poverty. In particular, rural poverty dropped from 22% in 1990 to 8% in 2009. Urban poverty has declined from 7% in 1990 to under 2% in 2009.

Although Malaysia has come close to ending extreme poverty, there are significant pockets of rural poverty remaining, especially among the indigenous communities of Sabah and Sarawak. Income inequalities have been rising and the Income Gini coefficient currently stands at 37.9. The overwhelming proportion of this inequality is due to intra-group inequality.