Poverty declines in Hungary over past 3 years?

The number of people classified as poor in Hungary has dropped continuously since 2013, the state secretariat for social affairs and social cohesion at the Human Resources Ministry said on Monday, releasing a report on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Since 2012 nearly 600,000 have risen out of poverty, as a result of the Hungarian government’s measures, the report said.

The risk of poverty and social segregation fell to 31.8 percent by 2013 and further to 28.2 percent by 2014, it said, citing Eurostat data. The group containing the most vulnerable people has been reduced by 166,000 in 2014, it added. Government measures contributing to these falling numbers included foreign-currency mortgage bailouts, fostered work programmes and the utility bill-cut scheme.

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The risk of poverty among the Roma in Hungary fell by six points from 2013 to 2014 and the index for work poverty fell from 45.3 to 26.7 percent in the same period.

The UN General Assembly declared 17 October as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty in 1992.

Source: MTI