KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — The government will establish a Poverty Circle with members comprising representatives from the government, private sector, civil community organisations, and academics to discuss and formulate the best strategies to tackle poverty particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement today, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the Poverty Circle will be administered by the Economic Planning Unit. 

"The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), however, it also provides opportunities to Malaysia to reset the country's development towards a future that is more prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable,” he said. 

Overall, Mustapa said Malaysia had attained good progress especially in addressing poverty and improve the wellbeing of the people.

Based on the Poverty Line Income 2019 methodology, the absolute poverty rate had reduced to 5.6 per cent covering 405,441 households in 2019 compared with 7.6 per cent (525,743 households) in 2016.

According to the Statistics Department, the pandemic had caused the poverty rate to increase to 8.4 per cent in 2020 from 5.6 per cent in 2019. 

The hardcore poverty rate had also dropped to 0.4 per cent (27,158 households) in 2019 from 0.6 per cent (45,004 households) in 2016. 

Mustapa said the incidence of poverty was lower for all ethnic groups with the biggest drop recorded by the Bumiputera community.

However, he said there were still poverty and inequality clusters as well as various poverty dimension — poverty in a more wider context in the aspects of income and not finances covering health, education, and basic facilities.

"The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Malaysia's economy has affected the people's income and driven more households into poverty particularly among the B40 and vulnerable groups,” said Mustapa. — Bernama