This Sunday the second presidential debate will be held, in which the candidates and the candidate will even answer video-recorded questions in public squares in the country on the topics of economic growth, employment and inflation; infrastructure and development; poverty and inequality, as well as climate change and sustainable development.
Last Thursday, the candidate by the Let’s Keep Making History coalition, Claudia Sheinbaumpresented the social policy of the ‘second floor of the fourth transformation’, where poses that, if he wins the election, he proposes, with GDP growth of at least 3 percent average annually, lift 7.5 million people out of extreme poverty from 2025 to 2030.
With figures from the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval), between 2018 and 2022 –2020 is excluded due to the economic and social implications of the covid pandemic– a reduction was observed in both the rate and the number of people in condition of poverty.
At the national level, the percentage of the population in a situation of multidimensional poverty – with at least one social deficiency and insufficient monthly income to acquire food, goods and necessary services – decreased from 41.9 percent in 2018 to 36.3 percent in 2022.
In number of people, in 2022 there were 46.8 million Mexicans in poverty from 51.9 million in 2018.
The reduction in poor inhabitants was 5.1 million people in 2022 compared to 2018 and, for the first time since records have been recorded, the percentage of the population in poverty was below 40 percent.
The above corresponds to the recovery in household income in Mexico of 4.6 percent in the same period.
However, in the disaggregation of multidimensional poverty by population groups, the proportion of the population in extreme poverty –with insufficient income to purchase the food basket and with at least three social deprivations– increase from 7 to 7.1 percent between 2018 and 2022.
Although the increase in the percentage of the population in this condition was marginal, the number of people in extreme poverty went from 8.7 to 9.1 million during that same period.
The increase was 400 thousand people, who in 2018 were in a situation of moderate poverty.
Regarding the second presidential debate, the Mexico economic observatory team, how are we doing? (MCV) carried out an analysis of the results of the performance of the Mexican economy in social progress.
In terms of poverty and inequality, MCV highlights that 48 million Mexicans live in a situation in which their household’s labor income is not enough to purchase the food basket for all its members.
Sofía Ramírez, director of MCV, sums it up in that “we are left with this taste in our mouths where moderate poverty decreases slightly, but there are 50 million of people who lack access to health services”, according to Coneval’s indicators of social deprivation.
The analysis of the economic observatory recalls that the income of the richest 10 percent – the group of households with the highest income – is 15 times greater than that of the poorest 10 percent – the group of households with the lowest income.
Inequality has decreased, but not enough, so “We still live in a very unequal country.”Ramírez emphasizes in an interview with this reporter.
Back to extreme poverty, its permanence at levels similar to those of 2018 before the pandemic suggests that there are many years left to eradicate it in the country.
Candidate Sheinbaum proposed that, through a combined action of access to education, health, housing, social programs and the country’s own economic development, extreme poverty can be eradicated or, at least, reduced significantly. noun: “we are talking about 7.5 million people.”
If extreme poverty were reduced by that number of people, in 2030 there would be a decrease to only 1.6 million people in such poverty compared to 2022.
Can extreme poverty be put an end to in such a short time?
