Dominican Republic’s monetary poverty rate drops to 20.8% in Q3 2024

Santo Domingo.- The Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Development reported a significant reduction in the general monetary poverty rate, which stood at 20.8% in the third quarter of 2024. This represents a year-on-year decline of 3.6 percentage points (pp) and a 6.72 pp drop compared to the pre-pandemic period of 2019.

The “Quarterly Bulletin of Monetary Poverty in the Dominican Republic” highlights notable decreases across various demographics. Urban poverty fell by 4.0 pp from 24.1% to 20.1%, while rural poverty decreased by 1.16 pp to 24.7%. Gender-specific data showed reductions as well, with poverty among women declining by 3.1 pp to 22.6% and among men by 4.1 pp to 18.9%. However, the poverty gap between women and men widened slightly, increasing from 2.7 pp in 2023 to 3.7 pp in 2024.

The report attributes the overall reduction in monetary poverty primarily to a 6.3 pp increase in nominal per capita income among Dominican households. However, inflation and income distribution dynamics offset some of this progress, increasing poverty by 1.6 pp and 1.1 pp, respectively.