China News Service, Taipei, August 22. The latest statistics released by the "General Accounting Office" of the administrative department of the Taiwan authorities show that under the influence of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Taiwanese people's savings will soar in 2020, consumption will plummet, and income will be unevenly distributed. The situation is even more severe, and the gap between the rich and the poor has hit an 8-year high.

　　The Central News Agency, China Times News, United News Network and other media reported on the 22nd that when the new crown epidemic broke out in 2020, Taiwan was once faced with a manufacturing chain disconnection crisis, public consumer confidence plummeted, and service industry performance was dismal.

In the face of unknown job prospects, people increase their savings for emergencies.

According to statistics, the average household savings in 2020 is 265,000 yuan (New Taiwan dollars, the same below), an annual increase of 14.8%, the largest increase since 1994.

　　As the people increase their savings, they also minimize their expenditures.

The average household consumption expenditure in 2020 is 815,000 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.7%, which is the largest decrease since the statistics.

　　In addition to the surge in savings and the sharp drop in consumption, the epidemic has also made the income distribution more severe. If Taiwan households are divided into five equal parts, the income gap between the highest and lowest income households is 6.13 times, the highest since 2013.

　　In fact, the gap between the rich and the poor has been one of the focal points of public opinion on the island in recent years.

According to the statistics on the comprehensive income tax issued by the financial affairs department of the front office in 2019, if Taiwan households are divided into 20 equal parts, the average annual income of the households with the highest income is 5.078 million yuan, and the average annual income of the households with the lowest income is only 39,000 yuan. The difference is more than 130 times.

The gap between 2017 and 2018 was 111 times and 122 times respectively.

　　An editorial in Taiwan's "Economic Daily" pointed out that the authorities' response to the gap between the rich and the poor is usually to downplay or overstate the disparity.

If the income gap between the people is too large, it will often cause class antagonism and hatred of the rich, leading to social turbulence and unrest, and those in power cannot ignore it.

　　Wu Daren, executive director of the Taiwan Economic Center of Taiwan’s "Central University", pointed out that the impact of the epidemic in Taiwan in 2020 is actually not too serious, and the impact of the epidemic this year is even worse.

After the outbreak of the local epidemic in May, many people with low incomes faced unemployment and were forced to take unpaid leave, and their financial ability was greatly reduced.

The widening income distribution gap in 2021 may not improve.

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