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LatAm poverty rate rose 1 percent last year: UN

Xinhua, March 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

About 29.2 percent of Latin America's population was estimated to be living in poverty by the end of 2015, 1 percent higher than that of 2014, said a UN report published on Tuesday.

The report, published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), estimated that the number of people living under the poverty line in the region has reached 175 million.

"Latin America must create more quality employment, with rights and social protection, safeguard the minimum wage and protect social spending, which is showing a slower pace of growth," said ECLAC's Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena.

Between 2002 and 2012, poverty in the region fell by 15.7 percentage points, Barcena noted.

"It is urgent that countries explore new sources and fiscal mechanisms of financing that can ensure the sustainability of social policy and the progress achieved in the last decade," she said.

The report also pointed out the persistent inequalities in the education system and the region's labour market.

Only 34 percent of people aged from 20 to 24 in the lowest-income quintile had finished secondary school in 2013, in comparison to 80 percent of people from the highest-income quintile, said the report. Endi