马来西亚经济发展经历了独立初期、“新经济政策”时期、“国家发展政策”时期、“国家宏愿政策”时期和“新经济模式”时期。纵观各个时期的发展政策，马来西亚重视收入分配问题，以防范族群间收入差距过大激发族群矛盾，危及社会稳定和国家发展。伴随着经济发展和社会进步，马来西亚国内收入分配状况得以改善，族群间收入差距逐步缩小，城乡间收入差距略有下降，但地区间收入差距有所上升，而来自国内收入差距的主要因素是各阶层收入的不平等。
The economic development of Malaysia has experienced early independence，“new economic policy” period，“national development policy” period，“national vision policy” period and “new economic model” period. Surveying the development policies at all stages，Malaysia has attached great importance to the issue of income distribution in order to prevent the income gap between ethnic groups from arousing ethnic contradictions and endangering social stability and national development. With economic development and social progress，Malaysia's domestic income distribution has improved，the income gap between ethnic groups has gradually narrowed，the income gap between urban and rural areas has decreased slightly，but the income gap between regions has increased. The main factor leading to the domestic income disparity is income inequality among social strata.
