Poverty Rates Drop in Latin America

from Yahoo Business News

UN: Economic Growth Leading to Lower Poverty Rates in Latin America, Caribbean

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Strong economic growth pushed the number of people living in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean below 200 million for the first time in more than 15 years, a U.N. commission reported Thursday.

The number of poor decreased by 3.3 percentage points between 2005 and 2006, falling from 209 million -- 39.8 percent of the region's population -- to 194 million, or 36.5 percent, the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America said in a report.

About 71 million people, or 13.4 percent of the population, lived in extreme poverty in 2006, down from 15.4 percent in 2005.

The commission defines "extreme poverty" as households with incomes insufficient to provide food for all family members, and "poverty" as 1.75 times that income in rural areas, and double that income in cities.

"As a region, Latin America and the Caribbean is well-positioned to meet the first target established for the U.N. Millennium Development Goals of halving the 1990 extreme poverty rate by 2015," the Santiago, Chile-based commission said.

According to the report, "Social Panorama of Latin America 2007," a number of countries, including Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil and Chile have already met that goal.

Latin America's economy has grown more than 3 percent a year since 2003 -- the greatest per person GDP growth since the 1970s -- helping to slash unemployment and poverty levels in a majority of countries, the report said.

Extreme poverty is expected to drop to 12.7 percent, compared to a peak of 22.5 percent in 1990, by the end of 2007, the report said. Overall poverty will fall to 35.1 percent of the population by year's end, down from a peak of 48.3 percent in 1990.

Even with those declines, about 190 million people will continue in poverty -- 68 million of them in extreme poverty, the commission said.