09-09-2021, 10:27 AM
![[Image: shankar-r-santhiram-columnist-new-170321-1.jpg]](https://s3media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/shankar-r-santhiram-columnist-new-170321-1.jpg)
I was shocked to read that the poverty rate in Malaysia has now spiked to a whopping 8.4% of our population. This information was presented to the nation by the minister for economic affairs, no less.
The country has 32.7 million people. This means, 2.7 million Malaysians are living in poverty.
Just last month, the department of statistics declared that the “absolute poverty” rate in the state of Sabah stands at 25.3% and in Kelantan at 21.2%.
With the population of Sabah being 3.83 million and the population of Kelantan at 1.93 million; this translates to nearly one million Sabahans or a quarter of their citizens, and 410,000 or more than a fifth of all people in Kelantan, living in absolute poverty.
- More -