Income inequality during pandemic: What does data say about Turkey?

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Oxfam released a special report today (May 23) about the World Economic forum, the meeting of the global elite.

The report entitled "Profiting From Pain" shows that 573 people became new billionaires during the pandemic, at the rate of one every 30 hours. Oxfam expects that 263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty this year, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours.

Billionaires' wealth has risen more in the first 24 months of Covid-19 than in 23 years combined, says the report. The total wealth of the world's billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9 percent of global GDP, which is a three-fold increase (up from 4.4 percent) in 2000.

While income inequality is getting worse in the world, Turkey's position is not much different from the global course.

Turkey's income distribution indicators show that the situation worsened in 2020 with the start of the pandemic, while there was a slight improvement in 2021.

Despite that, the deterioration in income distribution is at the worst level in the last 12 years.

According to the result of the Income and Living Conditions Survey released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) earlier this month, the severe material deprivation rate was at the same level in 2021 even though the share of the richest in the total income was slightly reduced.

The share of the richest quintile decreased by 0.8 percent and the share of the bottom quintile rose by 0.2 points to 6.1 percent.

The S80/S20 ratio, the ratio of the total income the richest 20 percent to the poorest 20 percent, decreased from 8.0 to 7.6 percent and the S90/S10 ratio, which is the ratio of total income received by the richest 10 percent of the population to that received by the poorest 10 percent of the population decreased from 14.6 to 13.7.

The country's Gini coefficient stood at 0.410 in 2021, down by 0,009 in a year.

Highest inequality in Europe

According to the latest data published by the European Union (EU) Statistical Office (Eurostat) on May 14, Turkey's Gini coefficient is higher than any EU member state.

The Gini coefficient in the average of 27 EU member countries is 0.30. The countries with the lowest Gini coefficient are Slovakia, Slovenia, Czechia, Norway and Belgium, and Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Turkey are the countries with the highest income inequality.

Turkey's richest people

The Paris-based Inequality Lab's World Inequality Report also confirms the TurkStat figures.

According to the latest data published in 2021, the richest 10 percent captures 54.5 percent of the total income in Turkey. The poorest 50 percent gets 12 12 percent of the income.

According to the list announced by Forbes in April, one of the leading business magazines in the US, Murat Ülker is the richest person in Turkey. He has a net worth of 4.7 billion US dollars.

Ferit Şahenk is the second-richest with his wealth of 2.4 billion dollars. Ferit Şahenk's sister, Filiz Şahenk, is the fifth richest person in Turkey, with a fortune of 2.2 billion dollars.

Erman Ilıcak, the head of the Rönesans Holding, follows Ferit Şahenk with a fortune of 2.3 billion dollars.

Nihat Özdemir and Sezai Bacaksız, the founding partners of Limak Holding, are also on the list with their wealth of 1.9 billion dollars each.

The list goes on as follows:

• Semahat Arsel: 1.6 billion dollars
• Hamdi Akın: 1.5 billion dollars
• Ahmet Çalık: 1.5 billion dollars
• Bülent Eczacıbaşı: 1.5 billion dollars
• Faruk Eczacıbaşı: 1.5 billion dollars
• Ali Erdemoğlu: 1.5 billion dollars
• Mustafa Rahmi Koç: 1.5 billion dollars
• Mustafa Küçük: 1.4 billion dollars
• Mehmet Aydınlar: 1.3 billion dollars
• Deniz Şahenk: 1.3 billion dollars
• İpek Kıraç: 1.2 billion dollars
• Turgay Ciner: 1.1 billion dollars
• Aydın Doğan: 1.1 billion dollars
• Mehmet Sinan Tara: 1.1 billion dollars
• Murat Vargı: 1.5 billion dollars
• Şefik Yılmaz Dizdar: 1 billion dollars

(HA)