The latest update of the macroeconomic indicators of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on the indices of poverty by Latin American countries, held on December 13, 2022, indicates that 77,840 Dominicans they entered the line of poverty and what some 44,480 they left the extreme poverty during the period 2020-2021.
The indices of poverty overall in the country increased by 0.7% in 2021, going from 21.8% in 2020 to 22.5% in twelve months. Unlike the poverty extreme, which went from 5.6% a 5.2%for a decrease of 0.4%, according to the statistics of the international organization.
The ECLAC collects that the Dominican population reaches approximately 11.12 million inhabitants by 2021, of that amount 578,240 are at levels of poverty extreme and 2,502,000 in poverty.
The indicators of the Economic Commission indicate that the Dominican Republic has kept in balance the indices of poverty. However, they continue to be a matter of attention by external pressures that could impact the income levels of the population.
Poverty local currency
In April of last 2022, the Ministry of Economy Planning and Development issued its bulletin on the rates of poverty currency, which had insignificant changes compared to 2020.
“The rate of extreme poverty registered a reduction of 0.45 percentage points, going from 3.51% in 2020 to 3.06% in 2021 and that of poverty overall from 23.36% to 23.85%, for an increase of 0.49 compared to 2020”, details the report.
The ministry assured that the variation in the indices of Monetary income is due to the increase in inflation which has simultaneously affected real household income.
The bulletin explains that the poverty Monetary is directly related to the actual income of households, which decreased 3.83% as a consequence of the combined effect of the increase in nominal income and inflation, which reached 8.5% in 2021.
When presenting the information on the indices of poverty currency at the national level, the entity explained that the variation was able to record larger data. However, the measures applied from the central governmentfor that period, contributed to contain the effects of the inflationary scale.
“The Government ordered the extension during the first quarter of the year of the mitigation programs PHASE Y Stay at homethe latter, with a monthly clearing in amounts and number of beneficiary households.
In addition, the amount of the subsidy of the component eating comes firstNow Feed yourself, from 825 pesos a month to 1,650. Likewise, the coverage of households that received this benefit was expanded, ”said the entity.
Regional average
The average rate of poverty of Latin America reached the 32.3% of the total population of the region in 2021, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points compared to 2020, while the rate of extreme poverty it was of 12.9%for 0.2 percentage points less.
“Despite the slight decrease registered in 2021, the projections indicate that the rates of poverty and extreme poverty remain in 2022 above the pre-pandemic levels”, alerted the ECLAC in his report last year.
2022
The outlook for 2022 combines two trend elements. On the one hand, the projected economic growth, even though it is expected to be lower than that of 2021, should translate into an increase in employment and the remuneration received by households. Given the variation in purchasing power indices, the agency stressed that this evolution must be followed with “special attention” in a context marked by economic instability, high informality and the weak recovery of quality jobs, which accounts for the vulnerability of households facing economic difficulties in countries of the region.
