New data finds that households in the bottom 20 percent income bracket spent more than 40 percent of their disposable income on food in the first quarter.

According to the finance ministry and the Korean Statistical Information Service(KOSIS) on Tuesday, such households spent around 358-thousand won per month on food products and eating out in the January-to-March period. The sum is roughly 42 percent of their average monthly disposable income of some 847-thousand won.

The percentage is more than triple that of households in the top 20 percent income bracket, which were estimated to spend around 13 percent of their disposable income on food.

The finance ministry said the data shows that low-income households’ real purchasing power has been undermined following the sharp surge in living costs.