As we have discussed above, the net effect of all of these changes is an unambiguous increase in inequality from 1996 to 2001. A lower poverty line of $2 per day (R91 per person per month in 1996 purchasing power parity terms) and an upper poverty line of R250 per person per month (in 1996 Rands) are used to show that the leftward shift of incomes in the middle and lower-middle areas of the 2001 distribution is indeed a reflection of a slight but unambiguous increase in measured poverty between 1996 and 2001. The poverty rankings by race are completely robust. At any poverty line, Africans are very much poorer than Coloureds, who are very much poorer than Indians/Asians, who are poorer than whites.