Dominican Republic reports continued decline in monetary poverty in 2023

Santo Domingo.- The Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development of the Dominican Republic has released a report showing a sustained decrease in general monetary poverty in the third quarter of 2023. According to the “Quarterly Bulletin of Monetary Poverty in the Dominican Republic,” the internal annual reduction was 4.0 percentage points, bringing the rate down to 24.4%.

This rate, calculated for the period of July-September 2023, not only continues the downward trend observed in the first two quarters of the year but also marks the lowest monetary poverty rate since 2016 for this quarter. It’s noted that the current rate is lower than the pre-pandemic estimates.

The report further breaks down the data by area of residence. In urban areas, the monetary poverty rate stood at 24.1% in 2023, a 3.6 percentage point decrease from 2022. In rural areas, the rate was 25.8%, showing a more significant reduction of 6.3 percentage points compared to the same period in 2022. These figures are the lowest recorded from 2016 to date for both urban and rural areas.

There was also a decrease in monetary poverty across genders. Women saw a greater reduction of 4.4 percentage points, from 30.2% in 2022 to 25.8% in 2023. Men experienced a decrease from 26.5% to 22.9% in the same period. This reduction has led to a narrowing of the poverty gap between men and women.

The report attributes the decline in poverty primarily to the growth of nominal per capita household income, which contributed to a 7.9 percentage point reduction in the poverty rate. However, factors like inflation and the distribution of income partially offset this positive impact, increasing poverty by 2.0 and 1.9 percentage points, respectively.

The “Quarterly Bulletin of Monetary Poverty in the Dominican Republic” is part of the government’s commitment to regularly update poverty estimates, enabling timely state actions when necessary. The bulletin provides a detailed characterization of monetary poverty, disaggregated by sex and area of residence, and offers an interannual comparison for ongoing monitoring. The methodology used for these calculations was approved in 2022, ensuring an up-to-date and accurate reflection of the current economic conditions.