22% of Brazilians Live in Poverty, According to Study

10/31/2017 - 10h16

Advertising

JOANA CUNHA

ÁLVARO FAGUNDES

FROM SÃO PAULO

A new metric now being used by the World Bank to measure the number of people who live below the poverty line has raised from 8.9 million to 45.5 million the number of Brazilians considered to be poor - or to 1/5th of the total population.

The institution decided to add to its traditional measurement of the poverty line - which traces the lowest level of daily consumption of less than US$ 1.90 - with other indicators which are more tailored to the reality of each country.

A new line has been set at US$ 3.20, which represents the average poverty line for low income countries. Another line has been set at US$ 5.50 per day, which corresponds to the average poverty line for higher middle-income countries, which includes Brazil.

"Being poor in Malawi or Madagascar is different than being poor in Chile, Brazil or Poland", said Francisco Ferreira, an economist from the World Bank.

In the case of countries like Brazil, the number of people who live below the line of US$ 1.90 is small.

"Very few people live on US$ 1.90 per day in Brazil, thank God. But anyone who lives on US$ 2.00 is still poor by Brazilian standards and by the standards of other higher middle-income countries", he said.

The scale of US$ 1.90 will continue to be used as the primary measure by the bank as a benchmark for the eradication of extreme poverty in the world by 2030.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

Read the article in the original language