The research aims to understand expenditure inequality in Myanmar. It utilises a household expenditure data set of 2004/05 and 2009/10 called the Integrated Household Living Condition Assessment (IHLCA) surveys. The distributions of revised comprehensive total household expenditures per adult equivalent indicate the decline in different measures of expenditure inequality over the study period. These data suggest that both ‘relative inequality’ and ‘absolute inequality’ appear to have fallen. In general, the data suggests that poorer population groups have experienced faster growth than richer ones across the entire consumption distribution. The nationwide Gini coefficient for expenditure per adult equivalent decreased from 0.262 to 0.227 over time. Nationally, the declines in the Gini coefficient, Theil index, Mean Log Deviation (MLD) and Atkinson indices were each statistically significant.

The contribution of within-group inequality to total inequality of rural and urban in both changes and level are higher compared to that of between-group inequality. The proportion of total inequality in Myanmar attributed to between rural and urban inequality decreased while that attributed to within rural and urban correspondingly increased. A similar trend is found for the contributions of states and regions to total inequality in terms of level and changes. Therefore the results confirm that a substantial part of expenditure inequality in Myanmar is not spatial.