The difference between the richest and the poor in Thailand was not so high
compared to some countries in Latin America; namely Brazil and Mexico between the 1950s
and 1980s, but it continued to rise and became critical according to the latest data in 1990/91.
The gap has still not tended to be closed. Even though the Gini coefficient was more or less
0.45 between the 1960s and 1980s, it rose to 0.52 in 1992. What is of greater importance is
that high economic growth in recent years has given rise not to more even income
distribution, but more inequality. It is argued that slices of the bigger national pie made
possible by high economic growth have scarcely trickled down to the poor in rural areas.
Thus, the degree of inequality is simply not related to the level of income per head, but rather
to factors dependent on what kind of development strategy is followed. What matters is the
strategy of development as rightly pointed out by Griffin (1989).