SLOWER GOING IN BRAZIL, SAYS THE ECONOMIST

Brazil is, famously, one of the world’s most unequal countries and the income of the richest 10% of the population is 38 times that of the poorest tenth, according to The Economist on September 21st. The ratio in Poland, which has similar income per person, is just eight to one. Despite this worrying statistic, according to the publication, the Labor Party (PT), in power since 2003, says that income inequality in Brazil has fallen considerably in recent years.
Data from the annual household survey (2013) and published last week by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) based on a group of 150,000 families, showed that there was a slight decrease of the inequality in Brazil. The Gini coefficient, calculated from the household and that measures inequality, went from 0,499 in 2012 to 0,497 in 2013.
Despite some negative data in other areas, that is not to deny the strides that Brazil continues to make in reducing inequality. The proportion of families with Internet access increased to 43% compared to 40% in the previous year. Another positive factor is that all children between 6 and 14 years are attending school and for the first time in history, the United Nations Food and Agriculture declared Brazil hunger-free.