Colombia, one of the poorest countries in Latin America: this is what ECLAC says

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), presented the Statistical Yearbook which presents the state of progress of the socio-demographic, economic and environmental development of the countries of the region, where it appears Colombia. It addresses issues such as: population, work, education, health, housing and basic services, poverty and income distribution, and gender. In several of them, the country would not have obtained very good results, revealing major problems experienced by the different communities of the national territory.

For the ECLAC the issue of the economic slowdown will undoubtedly have a strong impact. One of the areas where the slowdown has been most notable is that of the cost of living, which has prevented the reduction of the indices of poverty and extreme poverty, which presented particular changes, mainly after the pandemic derived from the Coronavirus.

“In the social sphere, data from the Yearbook show a slight recovery in some indicators after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, poverty in Latin America reaches 32.3% of the population, including 12.9% of the population living in extreme poverty. These figures represent a slight decrease compared to the previous year, of 0.5 percentage point in poverty and 0.2 point in extreme poverty”, details ECLAC, adding that there are 660.3 million poor in the region.

This is where it appears Colombia, it must be taken into account that it is the third most populous nation in the region. According to the commission, it is the country with the fourth highest percentage of people living in extreme poverty (15%), surpassed by Honduras (20%), Nicaragua (18.3%) y Guatemala (15.4%). Moreover, it is the fifth that occupies more inhabitants in condition of poverty.

The report notes that the poverty rate in the region fell from 30.5% to 29.8% in 2020, which represents a modest improvement in absolute terms. However, the ECLAC warns that these improvements are fragile and that the economic and social situation in the region remains worrying.

There ECLAC also underlines that the economic recovery of the region remains uncertain due to global uncertainty, the slow distribution of the vaccine against COVID-19 and the possible appearance of new strains of the virus.

In this same sense, they ensure that inflation is one of the main problems for all governments. He IPC Regional reached 15.4%, and the most expensive of these was food, which accounted for 13.2%. Energy and agricultural inputs are the products that have affected this item the most.

“The behavior of regional inflation is also correlated with the evolution of commodity prices, which between January and October 2022 increased by 16.6% compared to the previous year, where the growth of 45 .9% of energy prices. food products, 36.8% in fertilizers and 19.5% in food and beverages”.

In turn, the rate of unemployment was the fifth highest in the region (13.4%), which is 4.1% higher than the average for the ECLAC. In fact, in terms of labor, the registration of employees was 52.5%, which, combined with the participation of the population in the economy (60.6%) were below the regional average.

Colombia I would stand out in terms of school coverage, especially at the preschool and primary levels; stand out above most Latin American nations. There ECLAC he estimates that in these first courses there is coverage between 75% and 96%; at the secondary level, it exceeds 80% and in higher education, enrollment reaches 54%.