Citing the eKasih database, special functions minister Abdul Latiff Ahmad said 39,858 households were in the “hardcore poor” category and 57,281 were considered “poor”.

The three districts that showed the highest poverty rates were Kuching, Simunjan and Serian, he said in a written reply to a question from Anyi Ngau (GPS-Baram).

Kuching had the highest number of households living in poverty, with 2,631 considered “hardcore poor” and 4,866 “poor”, Simunjan had 2,417 “hardcore poor” and 2,529 “poor”, and Serian had 1,585 “hardcore poor” and 2,583 “poor”.

In June, economic affairs minister Mustapa Mohamed revealed that Sabah and Sarawak were among the states that had the highest increases in poverty rates.

Mustapa said this was because of inequality and imbalanced development across the country in terms of wealth, income, education and infrastructure.