Poverty in Venezuela Decreased by 22.6% over Past Decade
Mérida, August 7th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- The president of Venezuela's National Statistics Institute (INE), Elias Eljuri, announced on Friday that poverty in Venezuela has been reduced by 22.6% since President Hugo Chavez took office.
"Poverty has been dropping in an important manner over the last ten years, from 49% in 1998 to 26.4% in 2009," said Eljuri, citing the INE's national survey of 40,000 homes.
The INE also released inflation statistics for the month of July, showing 2.1% inflation, slightly higher than the previous month. Accumulated inflation so far this year is 13.1%, significantly lower than the 17.3% accumulated inflation during the first seven months of 2008.
Inflation in the prices of food, transportation, and education were slightly higher than the monthly average in July, while the prices of housing, health care, and communications were slightly lower.
The unemployment rate in June was 7.8%, according to the INE's most recent report. This is slightly higher than the unemployment rate in June of last year, which was 7.6%. The unemployment rate in Venezuela when Chavez took office ten years ago was 15%.
Well, that’s a good news
Well, that’s a good news for the people of Venezuela. However, it is not an assurance that we will never have economic downturn near us. Though economy is getting better, millions are still having the hard life because of the scarcity of opportunity. It seems that only those wealthy can survive. In case you got confused, when anyone brings up the Bourgeois, they don't mean going to McDonalds. Bourgeois, or more commonly, bourgeoisie, is a term for the wealthier classes, or the capitalist class. You might refer to them as upper middle class, or the rich. The word is French, (obviously) and it was used to refer to the class of people within a society that control the means of production, so that the poorer working classes (the proletariat) could only sell them their labor to make a living. This forms the basis of Marxism – Marx observed that the majority could only sell their labor for a wage.
It's very good.
It's very good. I'm really glad for this country. Inspite of different opinions to government they get success in this field.
INE chief Elias Eljuri said at a press conference that these figures correspond to the measurement of per capita income and that the drop in the indicators “doesn’t mean there is no poverty in Venezuela, as many trying to ridicule the official figures” say that’s what the government is attempting to convey. In this government, social investment has had great importance and has increased significantly. Some 45 percent of the national budget is going to social spending in 2010.