ABSTRACT
The World Bank (1993) has emphasised two features of the economic growth experience of high-performing countries of East Asia as defining characteristics of a ‘miracle’: high growth and reduced income inequality. However, the growth process in many of these countries has been far from equitable. For instance, an important finding of Singapore Government's Department of Statistics (DOS, 2000), was the rise in income inequality based on Gini coefficients for household income from work. The Gini was stable at 0.44 in 1990, 1995 and 1997, but rose to 0.45 in 1998 and 0.47 in 1999. The finding may not attract much attention particularly because the nation does not have abject and appalling poverty. The efficacy of economic management in the pursuit of rapid economic growth and maintenance of full employment have been major concerns and inequality was not quite an issue.
