Extreme poverty in Venezuela rises to 76.6%: Study

CARACAS,SEPT29(REUTERS)

Around three-fourths of Venezuelans now live in extreme poverty as the onceprosperous OPEC nation’s hyperinflationary economic collapse continued for a seventh straight year, according to a study published on Wednesday.

The 2020-2021 National Survey of

Living Conditions (ENCOVI), conducted by researchers at Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB), found that of the country’s 28 million residents, 76.6% live in extreme poverty, up from 67.7% last year.

The report attributed the rise to both the COVID-19 pandemic and chronic fuel shortages, which at least 20% of respondents said meant they could not put gasoline in their cars, a major obstacle to employment.

The ENCOVI study was created in 2014 to make up for the absence of official data, according to Pedro Luis Espana, a UCAB sociologist who contributed to the study.

A woman walks across hanged clothes on a vacant lot where families are settling since they cannot afford to pay rent anymore (Reuters)