UN confirms poverty on the rise in Venezuela

The UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America is finally catching on to what we wrote about months ago: poverty is on a quick ascendancy in Venezuela. The worst part of...

The UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America is finally catching on to what we wrote about months ago: poverty is on a quick ascendancy in Venezuela. The worst part of all of this? The trend is only going to get worse, seeing, as though we’re talking about 2013 figures so far.

Here are two graphs with the data. The full report can be downloaded here.

Pobreza Cepal 1

The number of poor people rose between 2012 and 2013, from about 7.1 to about 9.1 million, an increase in 2 million poor people in one year alone (using population estimates and a constant growth rate in the population). The number of indigent people rose, from 1.9 million to 2.8 million, again in a single year.

I wonder what the 2014 or 2015 figures will look like now that the government is bankrupt.

Here is another eloquent graph telling the same story:

Pobreza Cepal 2

Between 2012 and 2013, all countries in the region decreased their poverty levels … except ours. #ElLegadoDelGigante

Mind you, this isn’t the first time they’ve said this. Back in 2010, the  poverty rates in Venezuela also went up. However, back then, the rise was modest and temporary. Once oil prices went back up and the government started spending like crazy, poverty numbers went down again.

What a wasted opportunity the chavista experiment has been …

 

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