The best procedure, therefore, is to treat inequality indices as complementary to one another and analyse their results in combination. In contrast, inequality increased by half a percentage point or more annually in six countries (see figure 1.10). Although the decline in inequality has been small, and has not been enough to change Latin America’s status as the world’s most unequal region, it is nonetheless positive, especially in the wake of a prolonged period when general distributional improvements were lacking.