The number of Mexicans living in poverty declined between 2014 and 2016, says a report by the social development agency, Coneval.

Its latest biennial assessment of poverty levels reports a drop in the two most relevant indicators, the percentage of people living below the poverty line and the percentage living in conditions of extreme poverty.

The information was presented yesterday by Coneval in its 2010-2016 poverty evolution report (Evolución de la Pobreza 2010-2016, in Spanish).

The report says 9.5% of the population, or 11.4 million Mexicans, lived in conditions of extreme poverty in 2014. By the end of last year, the percentage had dropped to 7.6%, or 9.4 million people.

The number of people living below the poverty line dropped by 2.6% during the same period, from 46.2%, or 55.3 million people, to 43.6%, or 53.4 million.

That decline was reported in 27 of the country’s 32 states. In the other five historically poor states — Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Chiapas and Campeche — the percentage of people living below the poverty line increased during the period.

The report was presented by Coneval executive secretary Gonzalo Hernández Licona, who suggested that the dip in poverty levels could be explained in great measure by low inflation, an indicator that could well “. . . eat up the progress seen in recent years” if it were to rise.

Source: El Universal (sp)