Turkey’s top 20 percent spend 4.5 times more than bottom 20 percent

Turkey's top 20 percent of income earners spent about 4.5 times more than the bottom 20 percent, according to the "Household Consumption Expenditures, 2014" report released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) on Wednesday.

Accordingly, the share of consumption expenditures of the bottom 20 percent of income earners dropped to 8.5 percent in 2014, from a level of 8.8 percent. The richest 20 percent, on the other hand, compromised 37.2 percent of total consumption expenditures undertaken in the country last year, spending about 4.5 times more than the household in the lowest 20th percentile.

TurkStat revealed that the monthly average consumption expenditure per household was estimated to be TL 2,572 ($924.13) in 2013 and TL 2,848 for 2014. A further analysis of the report showed that the bottom 20 percent in the income quintile dedicated 28.8 percent of its earnings to food, and 32.8 percent on housing. These figures were respectively 15.1 and 21.6 percent for the highest income earners.

Of course, Turkey is not unique in terms of the poor spending much less than the rich, and allocating a large share of its income to basic expenses such as food and accommodation. According to the U.S. Deparment of Labor, the richest 20 percent of American households, for example, spent an average of $8,415 per month during the July 2013-June 2014 period, whereas those in the lowest 20th quintile spent $1,915 on average, about 4.4 times less than in the richest group.

And again, not surprisingly, a higher portion of the poor's income in the U.S. (compared to the rich) went to the food and housing expenses. The bottom 20 percent of income earners spent 16 and 40.6 percent respectively for food and housing, whereas these figures were respectively 11.2 and 30.7 percent for the richest quintile.