The Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPYD) published yesterday the Official Poverty Statistics 2022 bulletin, where it showed the new methodologies applied in the collection of data from 2016 to that year.
The director of Analysis of Poverty, Inequality and Democratic Culture of the Vice Ministry of Economic and Social Analysis, Rosa Cañete, reported that in 2022, the first year to represent a reduction in monetary poverty since the pandemic, more than 290,000 Dominicans have overcome the conditions of poverty.
The official pointed out that, according to the report, 401,283 people were in conditions of extreme poverty and 2,942,555 inhabitants in conditions of general poverty in 2022.
Cañete indicated that with the current Poverty Measurement Methodology, an average-sized household, that is, three people, is considered poor if it does not reach a monthly income of RD$22,176, RD$3,959 more than with the previous methodology.
He stated that around 1,800,000 people were benefited from the School Feeding Program (PAE).
He assured that more than 456,000 people ceased to be in a situation of poverty due to government transfers, PAE and monetary transfers.
Cañete declared that with the “2022 Methodology” the poverty gap between women and men is reduced to 4.6%, in 2021, and 3.6% in 2022. Regarding regional poverty statistics, he said that the Ozama region, which in the 2012 methodology was the second locality with the highest percentage of poverty, it is the macro-region with the highest incidence, accounting for 34% of general poverty.
The South region, which traditionally had a higher level of monetary poverty, becomes the second macro-region with 27.6% and the East region has a general poverty rate of 24.5%.
He explained that the data is published with the two methodologies from 2016 to 2022 to ensure transparency, but the results of one methodology and another cannot be compared since they use different standards.
go up standard
While the Minister of Economy, Pavel Isa, explained that the current process adjusted the reference population used in the study to increase the scope of the report’s results.
“What we are doing is raising the standard, we are defining the non-poor population as a population that has a higher level of income and quality of life than what has been used now,” the incumbent said.
The head of the economic body clarified that the structural adaptation of the methodology will be the official one to measure monetary indices in the Dominican territory.
Isa highlighted that with the publication of the National Household Expenditure and Income Survey (ENGIH), in 2020, carried out by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD), in 2018, the government body has updated the poverty lines to the current reality.
Regarding the economic expectations for 2023, the minister maintained that the increase in prices will soon no longer be a worrying aspect for society, because a noticeable slowdown in the inflation rate is already being perceived. “Inflation is normalizing, we are going to have inflation that oscillates between three and five percent. In other words, it will no longer be a matter of concern for Dominicans,” said Isa.