Peru’s overall poverty rate declined three percentage points over the past year thanks to the country’s strong economic growth, according to government figures released Wednesday.
The National Statistics and Information Bureau, INEI, said the national poverty rate in 2011 was 27.8 percent, down from 30.8 percent in 2010. Peru’s gross domestic product expanded by 6.9 percent in 2011.
The decrease represents roughly 790,000 people who were able to escape poverty, the INEI said. It added that 8.3 million people in Peru still live under the poverty line.
In a statement, the INEI said that poverty in rural areas decreased 4.9 percent to 56.1 percent in 2011, while the urban poverty rate fell 2 percentage points to 18 percent.
Extreme poverty declined 1.3 percentage points to 6.3 percent, which means that 362,000 Peruvians escaped that poverty. The government estimates that 1.9 million people still live in extreme poverty in Peru.
Peru’s poorest areas continue to be Andean departments. Apurimac, Cajamarca, Huancavelica, Huanuco and Ayacucho have rates of poverty between 53 percent and 57 percent, according to the INEI.
