According to ECLAC projections, extreme poverty in the region would have increased to 13.8 percent of the total population of Latin America, which means approximately 86 million people, a setback of 27 years in this indicator.
(MEXICO – ECLAC).- This Thursday, January 27th, the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) announced that the wealth of the super-rich Mexicans reached 136 thousand 100 million dollars in 2021, which represents an increase of 11.3% compared to 2019, the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And it is that according to their estimates, the wealth of the billionaires of Mexico represents 12.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of that country, a percentage that is only surpassed in Latin America by Chile and Brazil.
It was the organization’s executive secretary, Mexican Alicia Bárcena, who explained that not only the poverty that exists in the country has to be analyzed, but also the enormous wealth that a few families concentrate.
“The richest Latin Americans have not had tax burdens commensurate with their level of wealth, so we have to think about direct taxes on property, on wealth, which are progressive, redistributive, and not regressive taxes, such as VAT,” said Bárcena.
In fact, the organization took as its base the annual list of billionaires from Forbes magazine, of which 104 belong to Latin America and 13 of them are Mexican.
According to the study, the 13 super-rich Mexicans are the ones with the highest average wealth in Latin America, with 8.972 billion dollars in each case, an amount that exceeds between three and four times the averages of Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
In this sense, the Mexican billionaires concentrate 33% of the wealth of the super-rich in the region, with 136 thousand 100 million dollars in 2021, while the Brazilians monopolize 44%.
On the other hand, the health crisis unleashed by the pandemic will leave Latin America with a scenario of prolonged social crisis and the region faces marked uncertainty.
After 2 years of pandemic, the increase in poverty and extreme poverty for the sixth consecutive year is the most palpable balance. Said balance will keep this part of the world with lags and deep deterioration in the well-being and health of people, because they are not conjunctural since they are associated with structural weaknesses of the health and social protection systems.
Finally, inequality in the region interrupted a downward trend that began in 2002, a direct product of the social impact generated by the pandemic.
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