Santo Domingo.- The Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development of the Dominican Republic has published a report showing a sustained decrease in overall monetary poverty in the third quarter of 2023.
The report indicates an internal annual reduction of 4.0 percentage points, bringing the rate down to 24.4%.
The rate, calculated for the period July-September 2023, continues the downward trend observed in the first two quarters of the year.
It also marks for this quarter the lowest monetary poverty rate since 2016, lower than pre-pandemic estimates.
The data also reveals that in urban areas, the monetary poverty rate stood at 24.1% in 2023, a decrease of 3.6 percentage points compared to 2022. In rural areas, the rate was 25.8%, a reduction of 6.3 percentage points compared to the same period in 2022.
Monetary poverty across all genders experienced a decline. Women saw a larger decline of 4.4 percentage points, from 30.2% in 2022 to 25.8% in 2023. Men saw a decline from 26.5% to 22.9% in the same period.
The reduction in poverty is attributed primarily to growth in nominal per capita household income, contributing to a 7.9 percentage point reduction in the poverty rate.
However, factors such as inflation and income distribution partially offset this positive impact, increasing poverty by 2.0 and 1.9 percentage points, respectively.
The “Quarterly Bulletin of Monetary Poverty in the Dominican Republic” is part of the government’s commitment to periodically update poverty estimates, allowing timely state actions when necessary. The bulletin provides a detailed characterization of monetary poverty, disaggregated by sex and area of residence, and offers a year-on-year comparison for continuous monitoring.
The methodology used for these calculations was approved in 2022, ensuring an up-to-date and accurate reflection of current economic conditions.