Dominican Republic has fewer poor this year, report

Dominican Republic will reduce its poverty index 3.2 points from 44.3% to 41.1%, this year, says a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal), published yesterday in Chile.


Cepal affirms that Latin America’s vigorous economic recovery this year will prompt a fall in poverty in most of the region’s countries in 2010.

Latin America’s social panorama for 2010, presented in Santiago by Cepal Executive secretary Alicia Bárcena, projects that poverty and extreme poverty will decline 1.0 and 0.4 percentage points compared with 2009, when the global financial crisis inflicted its sharpest impact on the region.

It’s expected that 32.1% of Latin America’s inhabitants will remain in a situation of poverty and 12.9% in extreme poverty in 2010, or 180 million poor, of which 72 million would be in a situation of extreme poverty, returning to similar levels posted in 2008.

Cepal’s report highlights that despite the crisis’ strong repercussions in the region, poverty rose only one tenth of a percentage point (from 33.0% to 33.1%) in 2009.

Bárcena said the figures spark optimism that the region is again on the path to reduce poverty, a tendency which began in 2003.

“The countries of the region reveal a resilience in the social variables which hadn’t been registered in preceding crises.”

Source: Dominican Today

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