Poverty drops to 32 percent in 2006

Poverty has continued to fall in Venezuela, and last year it dropped 1.9 percentage points, based on official figures.

According to President Hugo Chávez' annual report to the National Assembly, "ending 2006, overall poverty rate dropped to 32 percent."

In the first half of 2006, overall poverty was 33.99 percent, according to the data provided by the official National Statistics Institute (INE).

However, extreme poverty rate remained unchanged since mid-2006. According to Chávez' report, at the end of 2006 "households below the poverty line decreased to 10.6 percent," but this is the same figure of extreme poverty the INE reported for the first half of 2006.

"In 1999, 43.9 percent of Venezuelan households lived in poverty, with 17.1 percent of these households living in deplorable extreme poverty," Chávez said in his report. His figures, however, do not match the numbers provided by the official INE.

According to the National Statistics Institute, in the first half of 1999, the poverty hit 42.8 percent of Venezuelan households, and extreme poverty was 16.6 percent.

Chávez' attributed reduced poverty to his devised social, health and alimentation programs, known as "misiones."