Inequality is worse in Mozambique than previously reported – Hanlon

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Inequality is worse in Mozambique than previously reported – Hanlon

9:09 CAT | 10 Jul 2017

Courtesy of WFP Mozambique (File photo) / For illustrations purposes only

Inequality is worse in Mozambique than previously reported, because the consumption of the better off is under reported, according to a study by Channing Arndt and Kristi Mahrt at the United Nations University – Wider. For example, the consumption at the top 1% was 13.6 times as much as the median according to the 2014 family expenditure survey, but when it is corrected to account for missing income, it is 15.3 times as much. And inequality is increasing.

Data is calculated by percentiles. Picture the population standing in a queue by income. The following people are selected: the person at 99% (that is 1% are richer and 99% are poorer), the person at 90% (10% are richer), 50% (the halfway point), and 10% (90% are richer), and we compare the richer and poorer to the 50% person in the middle. In 2002 the 99% person earned 12.4 times the person in the middle, but by 2014 the 99% person earned 15.3 times the middle person. By contrast in 2002 the 10% person earning 41% of the middle person, but by 2014 this had fallen to just 38%. The rich have been getting richer and the poor poorer. (There are graphs in the attached pdf here.)

By Joseph Hanlon

Source: News Reports & Clippings