According to the World Bank, the DR is ranked sixth in extreme poverty among 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. A new World Bank book, “The Forgotten: Chronic Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean” says that transitory poverty in the country is 8.6%, double the regional average. Extreme poverty in the Dominican Republic is at 25.6%, only surpassed by the extreme poverty in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia and Ecuador. The regional average is 21.6%.
The study by Renos Vakis, Jamele Rigolini and Leonardo Lucchetti was released on Monday, 10 March 2015.
This extreme poverty rate is despite the 5.1% average GDP increase the country has experienced over the past 15 years, above the 3.9% regional average. The director of the UASD University’s School of Economics says this is because the social model is one of exclusion. He says that social mobility is only 2% and practically 70% remain in the same state of poverty. He said that in countries like Costa Rica the social mobility rate is 40%. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/01/24089637/left-behind-chronic-poverty-latin-america-caribbean-overview
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2015/03/04/000333037_20150304121242/Rendered/PDF/947010WP0P15450ind0Overview0ENGLISH.pdf