Income inequality progresses in Luxembourg

(CS) Income inequality has progressed in Luxembourg, an OECD report has found, although the country is still better than the average of the organisation's member countries when it comes to the gap between rich and poor.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development last week presented the latest edition of its income inequality report, this year under the title “In It Together – Why Less Inequality Benefits All”.

The study found that income inequality was never as high in the organisation's history as it is currently, with the income of the richest 10 percent 9.6 times higher than that of the poorest 10 percent.

In the 1980s the ratio was at seven to one. It has even progressed quite rapidly since 2012, when the income of the richest 10 percent was nine times higher than that of the poorest 10 percent of the population in the OECD's member states.

The economic crisis has contributed to the problem, the OECD concluded, with social welfare measures to compensate some of its effects. However, real income for many low-income families has decreased, it said.

In the emerging countries, too, a widening gap is discernible, the study said, with the income gap dramatically increasing there since the 1990s.

In Luxembourg, the situation has also not improved.

Income in equality is measured in the so-called Gini coefficient, where 0 means perfectly equal and 1 perfectly unequal. The Grand Duchy saw its coefficient increase to 0.302 in 2013 – the latest available data in the study – up from 0.279 in 2007.

Still, it remains below the OECD average, which stood at 0.315.

Most equal in the ranking are Denmark, Sweden, Slovakia, Norway and Iceland. The bottom five of the ranking were Israel, the US, Turkey, Mexico and Chile. Luxembourg's neighbours rank eighth (Belgium), 14th (Germany) and 19th (France).

For the full report visit oecd.org

Reporting by Nadia Di Pillo