Sarawak maintains high-income status with 2023 Gross National Income per capita of RM77,968

File photo for illustration purposes only. Photo credit: Pixabay

By DayakDaily Team

KUCHING, July 5: Sarawak has maintained its high-income status under World Bank classifications, with the 2023 Gross National Income (GNI) per capita reaching USD16,560 (about RM77,968).

In a news report by TVS, World Bank lead economist for Malaysia Dr Apurva Sanghi, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday (July 4), stated that Sarawak is ranked fourth among the five Malaysian states that have achieved high-income status.

This ranking is based on the World Bank Malaysia’s calculations, which use the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s (DOSM) 2023 state-level Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita data, released on July 2, 2024.

It indicated that Sarawak has surpassed the World Bank’s 2023 high-income threshold of USD14,005 GNI per capita.

The latest data indicating Sarawak stands among five states in Malaysia to achieve high-income status based on World Bank classifications. Photo credit: Dr Apurva Sanghi/X

Last year marked a significant milestone for Sarawak as it was recognised by the World Bank for the first time as a high-income region in Malaysia for 2022, having exceeded the 2022 high-income threshold of USD13,205 GNI per capita.

In the latest data, Apurva also highlighted that Selangor has joined the list of high-income states with a GNI per capita of USD14,291.

Kuala Lumpur recorded the highest GNI per capita at USD29,967, followed by Labuan at USD19,117 and Penang at USD16,660.

However, Apurva pointed out that achieving high-income status does not automatically guarantee sustainable development.

“It depends a lot on how the income is used to sustain development. For example, Sarawak has achieved high-income status but recorded a high poverty rate of 10.8 per cent in 2022, while Perlis is not a high-income state but has a much lower poverty rate of 4 per cent,” he explained.

A graph indicating the modest growth of GNI per capita in Malaysia which has been in the upper middle-income bracket since the late 1980s. Photo credit: Dr Apurva Sanghi/X

Furthermore, Apurva also observed that Malaysia as a whole has not yet reached high-income status, but has been classified as an upper middle-income country since the late 1980s.

He expressed confidence that Malaysia could achieve high-income status by 2030, provided the foreign currency exchange rate between the US dollar and the ringgit remains around RM4.70.

“Malaysia remains an upper middle-income country for now but can reach high-income status by 2030 if the average growth rate is around four per cent and the near long-term inflation rate continues around two per cent.

“Achieving high-income status is difficult where the GNI per capita has barely moved from USD11,830 in 2022 to USD11,970 in 2023,” he said.

He stressed the importance of renewal or accelerating reforms by the Malaysia government to hasten the transition to high-income status. — DayakDaily