As South Korean people’s income increases, asset polarization becomes more serious!

Thanks to the South Korean government's financial investment, South Korean people's household income increased and distribution improved in the first quarter of this year .

"Income distribution improved significantly in the first quarter," said South Korea's Deputy Prime Minister for Economics Hong Nam-ki. He assessed that the figure exceeded the first quarter of 2019.

However, the asset gap between the low-income and high-income groups continues to widen, and asset polarization is deepening . Many people are calling for increasing sustainable private jobs, strengthening the income base, and improving polarization by stabilizing housing prices.

According to the results of the household trends survey in the first quarter of this year released by the Korea National Statistical Office on the 20th, income distribution has improved, with the average monthly income of households with more than one person nationwide reaching 4.384 million won , an increase of 0.4% compared with the same period last year.

This is because of the government's fiscal input and the substantial increase in transfer income. Among ordinary income, labor income was 2.778 million won , a decrease of 1.3%; business income decreased by 1.6%, and property income decreased by 14.4% . Transfer income was 723,000 won , an increase of 16.5%.

Household expenditures increased significantly compared to the increase in income, with the average monthly consumption expenditure reaching 2.419 million won , an increase of 1.6%. As the increase in expenditures exceeded the income, the average monthly surplus per household in the first quarter was 19,200 won, a decrease of 0.9% from the same period last year . On top of that, the burden of living expenses and health and medical expenses such as food , housing , and utilities is heavy.

Although the gap between the lowest and highest positions has narrowed, it is still far from easing polarization. The polarization of assets is becoming more serious because the labor income of jobs is decreasing. In order to have a stable income, high-quality private jobs should be continuously created, but this is not the case.

"The gap between income and assets in Korea is so large that we can't solve it, " said An Dong, an economics professor at Seoul National University.

Professor Wu Shizhen said : "There are still certain limitations to increasing jobs through fiscal investment , so companies can develop existing businesses and enter new industries. "

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