[NYTr] Venezuela: Poverty Rates Drop, Middle Class Grows

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - July 31, 2007.

[Poverty rates in Venezuela are dropping and the middle class is
growing, according to data from a recent Central Bank survey.  El
Universal reports that household measures show rising monthly incomes
overall since 2005, and a nearly 4% rise in the number of families in
the upper- and middle-income categories.  While a third of Venezuelan
households remain in poverty, this level has been much reduced in the
last five years; a study released last week by the Center for Economic
and Policy Research showed a 31% drop in overall poverty rates since
2002. -VIO]


El Universal - July 30, 2007
http://www.eluniversal.com/2007/07/30/en_eco_art_middle-class-househo_30A907537.shtml

Middle-class households prevail in Venezuela, Central Bank says

The Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) published its survey of household
budgets, with data collected in November 2004-November 2005, showing
that Venezuela is a country where the middle class is gaining ground,
while the number of households living in extreme poverty and the number
of households in high-income strata are shrinking.

BCV research based on Graffar method, which focuses on the profession
of the head of the household, education level of the wife, main source
of revenues and lodging conditions. In this way, the bank groups
households in five different strata.

The top rank, comprising the high-income households, includes 5.8
percent of households in Venezuela. The second and third positions
comprise 64.9 percent of households, with the fourth and fifth ratings
including 27.4 percent and 1.9 percent of households. Compared to 1997,
when the previous BCV survey was conducted, the number of households in
stratum 1 fell 0.8 percentage points. Stratum 2 soared 3.6 percentage
points, stratum 3 climbed 0.1 percent, and strata 4 and 5 dropped 1.6
percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.

In 2005, the monthly revenues of the 357,776 households in the top rank
averaged USD 1,822.75. Average revenues for the 1,232,000 households in
the second stratum were USD 1,138.64. The 2,750,000 households
comprising the third rank earned USD 747.92. In the fourth rank,
including 1,682,000 households, revenues averaged USD 434.95. And for
119,378 households in the lowest rank, revenues averaged USD 212.56.

According to BCV, 30 percent of Venezuelan households are living in
poverty, with 10 percent of them in extreme poverty.