In the last few hours, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) released data on poverty in Uruguay, corresponding to the first quarter of the year.
According to the information, poverty in general was 10.7%, an increase of 0.5% compared to the same period in 2021. The incidence of poverty in households was 7.4%, that is, for every 1,000 families 74, do not manage to cover the least for their food or housing needs. Poverty stood at 0.4%, and in terms of households at 0.3%. Last year, the first indicator was at 0.3% and the second at 0.2%. While early childhood is the age group most affected by poverty: in the first half of 2021, it affected 16.1% of children from 0 to 6 years old, while in the same period of 2022 it increased to 22.5 %.
In this sense, the senator of the Broad Front Mario Bergara said that although the semi-annual data published by the INE must be taken “with tweezers”, for methodological reasons, they are still very worrying, because poverty increases again at a general level. , increases by half a percentage point; and child poverty rises by six percentage points.
“We are in a worse scenario, with 17,000 poor people more than in the first half of 2001; and about 80,000 compatriots poorer than in 2019, ”she compared.
He stressed that the outlook is very bad and has to do with many causes, such as: that during the pandemic the government did not take the necessary measures to stop the increase in poverty; it did not help the most vulnerable population in the way it should have done; and they overachieved their goals in the fiscal field, that is, they spent less than what they themselves had planned to spend.”
“He could help and he didn’t. Poverty increased more than it should have and now we are running it behind, but also getting worse, because from the first half of 2022 compared to 2021 we are worse off. There are more poor compatriots in a growing country. There are almost 80,000 more poor people than before the pandemic, despite the fact that today the level of production is already above the pre-pandemic stage,” he pointed out.
gold mesh
Bergara said that as a result of the situation, the conceptual discussion of the spill and “the gold mesh” is returned.
He added that the government insists that if the “gold mesh” do well, then the spill is beneficial for the whole society, “but it is evident that this is not being seen.”
“That approach only privileges a few, and the spillover never comes. The export sector and some businessmen are making very significant profits, but there is no spillover. There are more poor people in a country that is growing, with which the theory of the ‘gold mesh’ and the spill falls again”.
Bergara stressed that it is necessary for the government to “take more action on the matter”, and allocate more resources to the most vulnerable.
He indicated that particularly worrying are the levels of child poverty, because in the range of children from zero to six years old, poverty went from 16 to 22%. “There is a very negative and worrying jump with the negative consequences for the present and the future.”
