Extreme poverty in Peru would be at worse levels than in the pandemic

After the presentation of the monetary poverty data for the year 2023 was announced with great fanfare, for this Thursday, May 9, by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), the same entity was responsible for suspending it until next week the results, “for reasons of force majeure.”

However, sources close to the INEI confirmed to La República that the cancellation request came from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM), lSo in the Council of Ministers this morning, which included President Dina Boluarte, Premier Gustavo Adrianzén and the Ministers of State, they had first-hand access to the results of 2023, which according to the source are worse than those of 2022 (27.5%). The truth is that the report with the poverty and extreme poverty figures have already been approved by the entity and the Poverty Advisory Commission.

In that sense, it was learned that tomorrow this Commission will make public a statement regarding this fact, while Monday, May 13, would be the new date for the official presentation of the report.

Weeks ago the world Bank He announced that a third of Peruvians would be in poverty at the end of 2023. This is because poverty in Peru is measured on monetary poverty, that is, based on economic performance. National production in 2023 fell 0.6%.

The same source confirmed that Poverty in 2023 will be around 30%almost pandemic levels (in 2020 poverty reached 30.1% of compatriots), but The most serious fact would be extreme povertywhich today has a reach of 5.0%, a level similar to 2020.

If this information is confirmed, extreme poverty would rise to a decade high, since in 2012 it stood at 6.0%, and its expansion would have occurred in rural areas and cities.

For Farid Matuk, former head of the INEI, presumably the data they want to hide is that in 2023 there was the largest caloric deficit (hunger) of this century. He specified that in 2022 the levels of 2001 will be reached, “and with the 2023 recession necessarily the hunger was increasing,” he noted.

Disastrous precedent

For Luis Miguel Castilla, former Minister of Economy, it would be truly shameful what the government would try to do by manipulating the official poverty figures and thus hide the undeniable: the increase in monetary poverty in the country in 2023. He explained that the Advisory Commission for the Estimation of Monetary Poverty, made up of independent experts and the support of multilateral organizations, has provided support to the INEI in the measurement of poverty and the preparation of the household survey during the last 20 years and have validated last year’s results a few days ago.

“However, an absolutely unprecedented situation arises that would represent a disastrous, absolutely unacceptable precedent. Attempts to manipulate official statistics is a cause for suspension of countries’ membership in international organizations, as occurred in the past in Argentina and Venezuela in the past.“, warned the economist through his social networks.

In that sense, Castilla urged not to remain indifferent “in the face of the serious institutional setback to which we are being subjected by an incompetent Government that intends to cover the sun with a finger. The opacity in national statistics could cost the credibility of the Peruvian State a lot,” he stated.