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News > Latin America

Ecuador: Poverty Increases by 3% in Just Six Months

  • Protesters take to the street of the Ecuadorean capital Quito against the policies of the government of President Lenin Moreno.

    Protesters take to the street of the Ecuadorean capital Quito against the policies of the government of President Lenin Moreno. | Photo: Reuters

Published 17 July 2018
Opinion

A government agency also said that extreme poverty saw an increase from 7.9 percent to 9 percent.

Between December 2017 and June 2018 Ecuador has seen an increase in poverty to 24.5 percent from 21.5 percent, the country’s National Institute of Statistics and Census (Inec) said in a report Monday.

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The agency also said that extreme poverty saw an increase from 7.9 percent to 9 percent. The new figures are calculated during a period that amounts to half of the time the government of President Lenin Moreno have been in power. Moreno took office in May 2017.

The agency defines a person to be poor if they have a per capita family income of less than $84.72 per month and are in extreme poverty when they earn less than $47.74. Former President Rafael Correa shared the statistics on his twitter and lamented the news. 

"Dear Homeland! How have we allowed them to do this to you?!"

Meanwhile the agency reported that In the same period unemployment saw a slight decrease from 4.6 percent to 4.1 percent and underemployment from 19.8% to 19.4%.

Local media reported that at least 70.5 percent of the population of Ecuador, with some 16.8 million inhabitants, is of working age, and 66.4 percent of that is economically active, meaning they have a job or are seeking employment.

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