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Thursday, August 20, 2009
A Washington based population research agency says significant numbers of people throughout the Caribbean are living on less than US$2 per day.
In a report the Population Reference Bureau says while Haiti continues to be the poorest country in the Caribbean, there are alarming levels of destitution in other countries of the region.
The figure for Haiti is 72% while in oil rich Trinidad and Tobago, 14% of the population struggle to get by on less than US$2 per day.
The amount in Guyana is 14%, Suriname 2% and in St. Lucia 41%.
Carl Haub a researcher at the Population Reference Bureau who co-authored the report, broke down the figures.
"Those figures are actually complied by the World Bank and are taken from income surveys, surveys of market baskets, who's buying what, that type of thing and the numbers are surprising. However, we need to remember that in developing countries we usually have two groups at the top and bottom as ... we can have fairly wealthy people coexisting with people who live in extreme poverty.
"One thing that these Governments can try to do and some have, is to bring in some foreign investments which usually provide incomes that are much more than local industries can provide," said Mr. Haub.
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