Under Bolsonaro, inequality in Brazil fell to the lowest level in a decade

The increase in employment and the expansion of subsidies have allowed inequality in Brazil to fall in 2022 to the lowest level in the last decade, according to a study released this Thursday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The Gini index, which continues to position Brazil as one of the most unequal countries in the world, went from 0.544 in 2021 to 0.518 in 2022, its lowest level since 2012, when it began to be measured with the current criteria, IBGE said.

Despite this improvement, the study showed that the historical concentration of income remains.

While the richest 1% of the population earns over US$3,490 monthly, 50% of Brazilians live on less than US$107.

In 2021, the average income of the richest 1% was equivalent to 38.4 times that of the poorest 50%, but that ratio fell to 32.5 times in 2022.

“The sharp drop in this ratio to the lowest historical level is because many people have returned to the labor market, that more poor people are receiving subsidies, and that the income of the richest had a small reduction,” said analyst Alessandra Brito, responsible for the IBGE study.

The average income of the poorest half of the population rose 18% in 2022, and that of the richest 1% fell 0.3%.

According to IBGE, Brazil’s per capita family income in 2021 had fallen to the lowest level in a decade, rising 6.9% in 2022 to R$1,586 reais (US$318.62) monthly.

The study also showed that the number of Brazilians receiving some kind of income, whether from work, pensions, rents, subsidies, or other types, rose in 2022 to 134.1 million people.

This allowed the percentage of Brazilians with some kind of income to rise from 59.8% in 2021 to 62.6% in 2022.

Meanwhile, in 2022, 16.9% of families received the subsidies that the government distributes to the poorest, a record number.

With information from Lusa

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