According to Elías Eljuri, President of Venezuela’s National Institute of Statistics, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is the country with least social inequality in Latin America.

The official said during a TV interview that according to the Gini coefficient of 0.29, the distribution of income has improved in Venezuela as the poor have increased their income levels by seven percent.

The Gini coefficient measures inequality and ranges from 0 to 1. A low Gini coefficient indicates a more equal distribution, with 0 corresponding to complete equality.

Furthermore, the president of the INE said that this is only one of the statistical indicators that irrefutably show the decrease in poverty in the country, “due to the right educational, health and food policies developed” by the government.

Eljuri said that currently more than 12 million people purchase basic foodstuffs offered by the subsidized government food networks Mercal and PDVAL.

The president of the INE reminded that Venezuela’s Human Development Index (HDI), which previously ranked in the “medium” category, jumped by 0.84 percent, reaching the “high” category. This figure shows that Venezuela has the highest HDI ranking in Latin America.

Bolivarian News Agency, Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the U.S. Press and Communications Office / February 4, 2010