Publication: Shaking Up Economic Progress
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2017-11
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2017-11-27
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The Latin America and Caribbean region has achieved remarkable economic and social progress over the last decade, gradually shifting toward middle-income status. Economic growth reached an average annual rate of 3.2 percent over 2000–14, noticeably higher than in previous decades. This favorable context contributed to significant poverty reduction and expansion of the middle class. The proportion of the region's 600 million people living in extreme poverty, defined in the region as life on less than 2.50 dollars a day, was cut in half between 2003 and 2012, to 12.3 percent. Similarly, the share of Latin Americans living in moderate poverty, corresponding to living on less than 4.00 dollars a day, fell from 41.1 percent to 25.3 percent. Since 2011, there have been more Latin Americans in the middle class than in poverty, and the middle class is projected to become the largest group in the region (World Bank 2014a). The gains attained span other areas of human development such as increased access to basic services and lower child and maternal mortality.
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“Baez, Javier E.; Fuchs, Alan; Rodriguez-Castelan, Carlos. 2017. Shaking Up Economic Progress. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28892 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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