THE EDITOR, Sir:
AT THE Sixth Conference of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification held recently in Cuba, Prime Minister Patterson told the audience that, "poverty levels had been reduced by close to 50 per cent in the last decade".
In response to this statement by the Prime Minister, The Gleaner in its Editorial of Friday, September 5, 2003, stated that Mr. Patterson "owes it to the Jamaican people to explain the basis on which he made the claim".
Mr. Lynford Simpson, News Editor of The Gleaner writing in The Gleaner of Monday, September 8, 2003 also stated that the Prime Minister has a responsibility to provide the
evidence.
If the person who wrote the editorial and Mr. Simpson had taken the time to check the figures on poverty estimates put out by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) from 1992 to 2002, and the Jamaican Survey of Living Conditions for the same period, as well as the Informal Sector Study for Jamaica carried out at the request of the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB) in November 2002, they would not have expressed surprise at the Prime Minister's announcement nor would they be asking the Prime Minister to provide evidence to substantiate his statement.
The documents to which I have made reference have all outlined very clearly that the level of poverty in Jamaica in 1992 was 33.9%, in 1993 - 24.4%; in 1994 - 22.8%; 1995 - 27.5%; 1996 26.1%; 1997 - 19.9%; 1998 - 15.9%; 1999 - 17%; 2000 - 18.7%; 2001 - 16.8% and 2002 - 18.2%. What is very clear from the data is that there has been a significant reduction in poverty from a high of 33.9 per cent in 1992 to 18.2 per cent in 2002, an overall decrease in the measure of poverty by 46.3 per cent or as the Prime Minister said a "reduction of close to 50 per cent".
As is explained in the Informal Sector Study for Jamaica, referred to earlier, "the recovery of real wages since 1993 is a powerful explanation for the decline in the incidence of poverty.
"Other possible causes in the downward trend in poverty, such as the decline in inflation or the growth of the informal sector, (reported to be 43 per cent per cent in the said study) should necessarily be considered but just in order to explain the part of the gap which the recovery in real wages is not accounting for."
I am, etc.,
DELANO FRANKLYN
Minister of State
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Foreign Trade
