Poverty, according to ECLAC, will affect 170 million Latin Americans in 2024. According to the report, from 1990 to 2014 poverty was reduced steadily, although more slowly than expected.
The poverty rate in Latin America will decrease 0.5 percentage points in 2024 compared to the previous year, to reach 26.8% of the regional population, the lowest figure since 1990. This was reflected in a recent report that evaluated the economic situation of the region.
This is the recent work prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The research indicated that poverty will affect in 2024 170 million Latin Americans. Of that number, 66 million live in extreme poverty, equivalent to 10.4% of the population, whose income level does not allow them to satisfy their basic needs, ECLAC detailed in the document “Social Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2024” , he divulged.
Despite the fall compared to 2023 (27.3%), “Latin America has shown slow progress in poverty reduction in the last ten years,” the report added.
From 1990 to 2014, poverty decreased steadily in Latin Americagoing from 51.2% to 27.7%. “But its reduction was attenuated from then on and increased with the pandemic,” said the executive secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs.
ECLAC maintained the growth calculation for Argentina and the rest of the region
Why poverty is not decreasing in Latin America, according to ECLAC
According to the agency dependent on the United Nations, The slow decline in poverty is due to the “low capacity (of regional economies) to grow” and “high inequality, low social mobility and weak social cohesion” that the region presents.
The countries of Latin America will achieve growth of 1.8% this year, following a trajectory of low economic growth due to high inflation and interest rates that remain high worldwide. In 2023 the decrease in regional poverty was 1.5 percentage points compared to the previous year (28.8%), mainly due to the evolution of Brazil’s indicators.
“The number of people who escaped poverty in that country is equivalent to 80% of the variation of the indicator at the Latin American level,” the report said.
What happened in Argentina?
According to the report, Argentina It was the only country where poverty grew by 1.7% while Uruguay, Paraguay, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil and Mexico fell by up to 8.8%.
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Source: Ambito
