Poverty levels in the Dominican Republic have dropped from 42.2% in 2012 to 36.2%, according to findings of a study just released by the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development. Minister Temistocles Montas announced the results of the study, “Update of the Official Estimates of Monetary Poverty in the Dominican Republic” to the press yesterday, Wednesday 30 July 2014. Monetary Poverty is poverty expressed in economic terms.
Montas said that the drop indicates that 534,139 people are no longer living in poverty and 240,205 are no longer in the category of extreme poverty.
He said that in September 2012, the Ministry reported there were 4,251,303 people living in poverty, of whom 1,121,642 were living in extreme poverty. Research in March 2014 found there are now 3,717,164 people living in poverty, for 36.2% and people living in extreme poverty are 881,437 for 8.6%.
The director of the Ministry’s Economic and Social Analysis Consulting Unit (UAAES), Magdalena Lizardo, said that the pronounced drop is due to an increase in real per capita income in rural areas and the increase in people in employment. The nationwide real per capita income (March 2014 prices) is now at RD$8,822, up from RD$8,693 in March 2013. Likewise, in rural areas, the real per capita income increased from RD$5,569 in March 2013 to RD$6,139 in March 2014.