Reuters: Number of Latin Americans in extreme poverty highest since 2008: U.N. agency
(Reuters) - The number of people living in extreme poverty in Latin America increased in 2017 to the highest level in almost a decade despite an improvement in government social spending policies, a United Nations agency said on Tuesday.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said the proportion of people in extreme poverty, which is characterized by lack of access to basic human necessities like food and shelter, rose to 10.2 percent of the population in 2017, or 62 million people, from 9.9 percent in 2016.
The figure is the highest since 2008 and largely due to an economic deterioration in Brazil, which has only begun to rebound in the last year from its worst recession in decades. Brazil has about 200 million people, making it Latin America’s most populous nation.
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Update #1: Extreme poverty rises again in Latin America (France 24)
Update #2: Extreme Poverty Increases in Latin America, reports ECLAC (Prensa Latina)
WNU Editor: Economic and political turmoil in Brazil for the past few years, coupled with the disaster in Venezuela, is the reason for this increase in extreme poverty.
