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When the economy is in trouble, as it is these days, those who are less fortunate are hit harder.

In particular, as prices have risen a lot recently, the burden of food expenses has increased, and it was investigated that about half of the money earned by the bottom 20% of income goes to food.



Reporter Jeon Yeon-nam will tell you more details.



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Mr. A, in his 60s, works as a daily construction worker.



The only ingredients in the fridge are a few kimchi, tofu and eggs, no meat or fish.



[Mr. A: Garlic, which was purchased for 1,500 won until last year, now costs almost 6,000 won.

Those who have it don't feel it.]



This is because the income is getting smaller and the price is rising much faster.



[Mr. A: If you catch one or two things, it costs tens of thousands of won, and then if you catch a little more, the person who earns and eats for a day just loses his daily wage.

Rather than eating a proper meal, let's just appease hunger...

.]



This situation was captured in statistics.



In the third quarter of this year, households in the bottom 20% of incomes spent half of their income, which they could spend at will, after subtracting taxes and interest from the money they earned, on food.



My disposable income is about 900,000 won, but I spent 430,000 won, or 47.5%, on food and eating out.



If you pay about 200,000 won for electricity, gas, rent, etc., you will have less than 300,000 won left to buy clothes and go to the hospital.



The top 20% of households spent 1.27 million won on food, more than three times the amount, but in sharp contrast to only 15.9% of disposable income.



[Sung Tae-yoon/Professor, Department of Economics, Yonsei University: I think the problem of income polarization and consumption polarization centered on the poor can intensify if the economy slows down and inflation progresses.] In the



fourth quarter, basic foods such as ramen, milk, and bread As prices have risen and public utility bills have been announced, the government needs to reduce the shock by closely taking care of jobs and social safety nets for low-income people.



(Video coverage: Park Jin-ho, video editing: Lee Sang-min)