The government has announced that poverty has decreased by four percentage points over a 12-month period, from 36.2% in March 2014 to 32.1% in March 2015, which means that 378,000 people are longer in the poverty bracket with a 780,000 reduction over the last two years.
Magdalena Lizardo, director of the Economic and Social Analysis Unit at the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development made the announcement at a press conference held at the Presidential Place yesterday, Tuesday 15 September 2015. She added, however, that 3,338,544 people in the country were still living in poverty.
She said that the main reasons for the reduction in the number of people classified as poor were the country’s economic growth and the low level of inflation, which increased their purchasing power.
In the case of people living in extreme poverty she said there were estimated to be 600,405, which is lower than the 2000-2002 period when the figure was over 660,000.
At the same time, President Danilo Medina has set up a Technical Inter-institutional Committee to Measure Poverty (CTP). The committee members represent the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development and the director of the National Statistics Office (ONE), Pablo Tactuk as coordinator.
The committee will also include the Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare, the Labor Minister, the Central Bank, the National Social Security Council and the Presidency’s Social Policy Coordination Cabinet.
In addition to the domestic members, the committee will include guest representatives from the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The commission’s role will be to validate and gather statistics on poverty in the country and to ensure that international standards are followed.
http://www.diariolibre.com/economia/gobierno-reconoce-que-mas-de-3-3-millones-de-dominicanos-viven-bajo-pobreza-general-CX1257411