Poverty increased in Chile for the first time in 20 years

On Monday, a study was revealed that found that for the first time in 20 years poverty has increased in Chile, which is in tune with the economic crisis that has caused the expansion of the coronavirus in the country.

Specific, it is the National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (Casen) in the event of a pandemic, led by the government through the Ministry of Social Development, which revealed that 10.8% of the population is in a situation of poverty, which is equivalent to 2,112,185 people.

According to this survey, approximately 1,280,953 people are classified as “non-extremely poor”, while 831,232 are classified as “extremely poor” in Chile. Remember that in 2017, the percentage of “non-extreme poverty” was 8.6% and that of “extreme” 2.3%.

The results of this survey also showed that poverty rates in the regions exceed the national average. For example, in the region of La Araucanía, in southern Chile, the percentage is 17.4%; in the uble region, it reached 14.7%, while in the region of Tarapacá, in northern Chile, the rate is 14.0%.

The above is a worrying scenario since since 2006 the poverty rate has reached 29.1%, and from that date it decreased until 2017, when it reached a minimum of 8.6%.

The government investigation also reflects the regions of Chile with the lowest poverty rate, such as Magallanes and Aysén, have the lowest incidence of poverty in their population with 5.7% and 6.6%, respectively.

Moreover, despite the fact that the Chilean economy has rebounded since the start of the pandemic, such as monthly growth of 2.6% in May and 1.4% in April, the widespread coronavirus crisis caused the economy to fall 5.8% in 2020, which confirms that the economic difficulties continue to afflict its population.

Reactions to the affair in the government

Obviously, the above information it was a bucket of cold water for the Chilean authorities. For the Minister of Finance, Rodrigo Cerda, economic growth must now be a priority.

“What we need is economic growth. Social benefits will be maintained, but it is important to grow again. As a government, we have tried and researched mechanisms to create jobs“, said the authority.

For her part, the Minister of Social Development, Karla Rubilar, He also held words to stress the importance of recovering lost jobs., since the start of the pandemic crisis in Chile.

“When a health crisis like this hits families, it hits households in all quintiles, but When it hits so hard and so brutally in the fall of jobs, the blow to the most vulnerable households is a very difficult blow to mitigate. Therefore, beyond the fact that the Social Protection Network had a role like the one that could be seen in the figures and indicators of ECLAC itself, The truth is that as long as we can’t get these formal jobs back, we probably won’t be able to lift these families out of poverty.“said Rubilar.

What about government aid?

For the director of the Center for Longitudinal Studies of the Catholic University, David Bravo, the Chilean reality of poverty is consistent with the health crisis triggered by the coronavirus, which “marks the biggest crisis in the labor market since we set a record.”

He also added that, without the government’s financial support to the population, poverty “would have been much greater”.

The above was also raised by the Minister of Finance, Rodrigo Cerda, who argued that without government financial assistance, “Surely the poverty rate would have been close to 14%, and today it is closer to 11%.”

For his part, the coordinator of the Casen 2020 expert panel, Ignacio Irarrázaval, said that “In most of Latin America, the rates of increase in poverty are higher, so in this sense, in the bad state of the situation for our country, at least the growth of the poverty rate in Chile is lower “.

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