Peru has experienced an impressive poverty reduction over the last decade, the World Bank said in its new report named “Shared Prosperity and Poverty Eradication in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
“Peru has seen some of the most impressive poverty reduction in the region over the last decade, pockets of poverty persist,” said Jorge Familiar, Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Ana Revenga, Senior Director for Poverty at the World Bank Group.
Experts said that in Peru, just one-third of the country's population lives in rural areas; but those same areas account for half of the poor and 80 percent of the extreme poor in that country.
Poverty in Peru fell from 23.9% in 2013 to 22.7% last year, which means more 289,000 Peruvians left that condition in 2014, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI).
This way about 2,079,000 people were lifted out of poverty over the past four years, going from 30.8% in 2010 to 22.7% last year.
Across the region, higher incomes, improved human capital, and mechanisms that enable the poor and vulnerable to persevere in the face of shocks will be important for safeguarding the gains made in the last decade.
Latin America and the Caribbean have led the developing world in shared prosperity achievements in the last decade, and have seen impressive poverty reduction successes, driven by growth, labor incomes and effective safety net programs.
The middle class has expanded and the socioeconomic makeup of the region has transformed as a result.
However, as the region now faces an economic slowdown and stagnating inequality, understanding what helped drive these gains becomes particularly valuable.
In that sense, each country will have to tackle its current challenges differently.
(END) MVB/JJN/RMB
Published: 4/24/2015