Poverty February 15, 2018 | 1:21 pm

Economists question Medina’s claim of 1.2M fewer poor

P. Isa. File

Santo Domingo.-  President Danilo Medina’s affirmation that 1.2 million people came out of poverty in the Dominican Republic was challenged by the economist Miguel Ceara Hatton, and wants to know where the figure comes from.

Ceara questioned Medina’s claim of over one million fewer poor from 2012 to 2016, and of the 453,000 jobs created, noting that 449,000 people had entered the labor market, “which means that the reduction in unemployment was only 4,151 people.”

“How can you say that they took a million people out of poverty with such a small reduction in the unemployment rate,” he said.

The also economist Pavel Isa, considered it normal that poverty has been reduced by growth, but doubts it will be sustained. “Because we went through a period of slower growth and although people have passed, in a strict sense, from poor to not poor, their concrete life condition may not have changed much and they simply passed into a condition of vulnerability.”

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