Top 0.1% Income Growth Rate Drops from 18% to 3% Annually

Lower 30% income growth rate up 10.22%... Highest in 6 years
Higher income growth rate in upper 30% middle segment
Top income gap compared to median income eased from 64 times to 61 times

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] It has been revealed that the income growth rate of the top 0.1% in South Korea has decreased from 18% per year to 3%.

On the 4th, Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, analyzed integrated income data from 2012 to 2018 submitted by the National Tax Service. The year-on-year integrated income growth rate of the top 0.1% dropped from 17.9% in 2017 (28.1 trillion KRW → 33.14 trillion KRW) to 3.2% in 2018 (33.14 trillion KRW → 34.2 trillion KRW).

Integrated income is the sum of personal income combining earned income and comprehensive income.

The 3.2% income growth rate of the top 0.1% in 2018 is the lowest since 2013, when it was also 3.2% (22.44 trillion KRW → 23.16 trillion KRW).

The income growth rate of the top 1% also decreased from 11.4% in 2017 (78.78 trillion KRW → 87.8 trillion KRW) to 4.9% in 2018 (87.8 trillion KRW → 92.08 trillion KRW).

On the other hand, the income growth rates of the top 30%, the middle (top 50%), and the bottom 30% (top 70%) were found to have increased.

The income growth rate of the top 30% rose from 6.2% in 2017 (8.02 trillion KRW → 8.51 trillion KRW) to 6.3% in 2018 (8.51 trillion KRW → 9.05 trillion KRW).

The income growth rate of the middle segment, the top 50%, also increased from 7.5% (4.81 trillion KRW → 5.17 trillion KRW) to 8.3% (5.17 trillion KRW → 5.6 trillion KRW) during the same period.

The income growth rate of the bottom 30% rose from 8.0% in 2017 (2.78 trillion KRW → 3 trillion KRW) to 10.2% in 2018 (3 trillion KRW → 3.3 trillion KRW), marking the highest growth rate in the past five years.

The gap between the top 0.1% and middle-income earners also narrowed.

In 2017, the per capita income of the top 0.1% (1.47401 billion KRW) was 64.1 times that of the middle per capita income (23.01 million KRW), but in 2018, the gap eased to 61.0 times with the top 0.1% per capita income at 1.47132 billion KRW and the middle per capita income at 24.11 million KRW.

Representative Yang said, "As we pass the first year of the Moon Jae-in administration, there is a trend of improvement in the chronic income polarization," adding, "We must maintain inclusive growth policies that distribute the fruits of growth evenly among economic agents through expansionary fiscal policy and the Korean New Deal policy in response to the COVID-19 economic crisis."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.