PERU TODAY

Approximately 1 million 380 thousand persons were lifted out of poverty last year according to the annual survey published by the National Institute for Statistics (INEI). Poverty in Peru dropped by 5.2% in 2007 and currently stands at 39.3%.

There was also positive news for the most vulnerable segment of the population, those whose income is insufficient to cover the basic nutritional basket, as extreme poverty also dropped by 2.4% to 13.7%.

President Alan Garcia expressed optimism from this significant decrease and projected that by the end of his term poverty would be reduced to 30% and that by 2015 the poverty index will be below 10%.

The findings suggest that there is evidence that Peru’s sustained economic growth has been accompanied by poverty reduction throughout Peru’s regions in the last year. However, there are major disparities evident between the three regions (coast, highlands and rainforest). Furthermore, poverty in rural areas is still high and reaches 64.6% of the population whereas in urban areas it is 25.7%.

The coast continues to be the region least affected by poverty and extreme poverty affects only 2% of the population. The rainforest region recorded the biggest decrease in the level of poverty (8.2%). Rural poverty in the highlands is particularly drastic with 73.3% of the population impoverished.

The study was supervised by an Advisory Committee comprised of representatives from government institutions, the academic community, think tanks and international organizations such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and France’s Institute for Research on Development.