More than 40 per cent of Latin America lives in poverty - UN report

With progress toward overcoming poor economic conditions grinding to a halt in the past five years, 220 million Latin Americans - more than 40 per cent of the population - were living in poverty by end of 2002 and the figure is set to rise, according to a report released today by the United Nations economic commission for the region.

Poverty and indigence rates remained practically constant since 1997, says the report by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), with the sole exception being 2000, when better economic performance brought with it a reduction in the volume of poverty by more than 4 million people.

An advance version of the "Social Panorama of Latin America 2002-2003," the report estimates that 11 per cent of the population is undernourished and about 55 million people of the region suffered from some degree of malnutrition toward the end of the past decade.

In addition, almost 9 per cent of children under five suffer from acute malnutrition and 19.4 per cent from chronic malnutrition. More women than men bear the brunt of the poverty and female household heads have less monetary income than men for poor- and high-income households.

Due mainly to the lack of growth in per capita gross domestic product (GDP), living conditions in most countries should remain without significant changes in most countries this year, the report forecasts.