Thread: Mexico: Poverty worse now than in 1994

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/16316.html

Poverty worse now than in 1994

BY ALYSSA GIACHINO/The Herald Mexico
El Universal
December 16, 2005

According to a study by the Agricultural Secretariat, rural poverty has fallen while urban poverty is unchanged.
A decade after the nation´s most recent economic crisis, levels of extreme poverty have yet to recover to pre-1994 levels, according to a study released by the Agricultural Secretariat (SAGARPA) on Thursday.

"Rural poverty has fallen more quickly than urban poverty," said Ulises Miramontes, a statistician at SAGARPA.

Nationally, extreme poverty has dropped around 6 percent over the last four years, but the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty in urban areas has remained stagnant at 11 percent, according to the SAGARPA report. The survey says that rural areas have been faring better, where extreme poverty dropped from 41 percent to 30 percent over the same period.

However, a study released last month by the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Commission (Cepal) reported that between 2002 and 2004 overall poverty in Mexico was reduced by 2.4 percent with only a 0.9 percent drop in extreme poverty.

The SAGARPA survey was conducted with cooperation from the World Bank and the National Statistics Institutes (INEGI) during Vicente Fox´s presidency. Previous survey data was used to make comparisons of poverty conditions dating from 1992.

SAGARPA´s report says rural incomes have shifted away from agriculture and small businesses. Instead, the rural poor are living off a combination of income sources including salaried work, agricultural activity, government aid and remittances.

SAGARPA said that remittances sent by family members working abroad represent a decreasing percentage of rural families´ total income, despite estimates that remittances will reach upwards of US$20 million this year.

Cepal, on the other hand, said that remittances have played a key role in reducing poverty throughout Latin America and specifically in Mexico.

Likewise, a World Bank report issued in August said that remittances were an important part of poverty reduction.

"The agricultural income has dropped a lot," Isabel Guerrero, director of the World Bank for Mexico and Colombia, told the Associated Press. "However, the nonagricultural income has increased in an important way and the transfers ... such as remittances, have increased."

The SAGARPA report also said that expenditures per household for basic items such as food and rent grew more for the poor living in urban areas. The report added that the rural poor spend nearly half as much on basic needs, and are able to invest more in items such as farm equipment or home improvement.

In the area of food expenditures, SAGARPA´s Miramontes said that a survey of dietary habits shows that the consumption of vegetable proteins, namely beans, has decreased for all income levels over the past decade.

The poorest 20 percent of the population is spending significantly less on vegetable proteins now as compared to 1992, while they are spending only slightly more on animal proteins. At the same time, the SAGARPA survey says that over the last 12 years, people have increased their consumption of calories, carbohydrates, and fats.

So....NAFTA cost American Workers millions of jobs and made things worse in Mexico.

"Hey, that sounds great so lets sign 100 more FTA's and rule the world in working poverty".--George Wackident Bush.

Get this man out of the White House before he destroys the world in his attempt to rule it.