UNDP: Poverty Declines in Latin America and the Caribbean

(maybe this has something to do with countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and others opposing the USA's neo-liberal policies of "free enterprise" looting and pillage of the poor on behalf of bankers and other corporate overlords?)



The United Nations Development Program releases new report on poverty reduction in Latin America

Published 27 August 2014
Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on google_plusone_shareShare on email
Laura_Flanders_Show

The United Nations Development Program encouraged Latin America to continue efforts in the area of poverty reduction.
A press release issued by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) confirmed that more than 56 million people have been lifted out of poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years.

The findings based on a new report from the UNDP found that poverty levels during the period from 2000-2012 fell from 41.7 percent to 25.3 percent of the population.

Despite positive progress in the area of poverty reduction, many people have been unable to enter into the middle-class, which the study claims could force as many as 200 million people into poverty.

In the event of a major crisis, the report found that 38 percent of the Latin American population faces severe economic vulnerability. This group is primarily composed of those earning between US$4 and US$10 a day, who are neither living in poverty, or on less than US$4 a day (25 percent), nor have entered into the middle class, earning between US$10 to 50 a day (34 percent).

The latest data was revealed yesterday, during the regional presentation of the UNDP’s global Human Development Report titled “Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience.”

During the presentation UNDP Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Jessica Faieta stated, "In Latin America and the Caribbean, poverty has been reduced by almost half in the last decade, and the middle class rose from 22 percent of the population in 2000 to 34 percent in 2012."

However, Faieta went on to note that, "Despite these achievements, a very high share of the population is living in constant uncertainty. They are neither classified as living in poverty, nor have they gained access to a stable middle class status."

According to the report, between 2000 and 2012, Peru experienced the greatest decline of people who rose from living in poverty into a growing middle class, being the country in Latin America and the Caribbean with the highest relative increase in this group (19.1 percentage points).

Bolivia was the country with the highest reduction in relative poverty (32.2 points), but with the highest increase in the vulnerable population (16.9 points).