Hunger in Brazil
There is not a consensus about the total number of people who are starving in Brazil. The latest survey from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) estimates that there are in the country more than 44 million people who are still threatened by this issue. Economist and Professor Marcelo Neri, director of the Social Politics Centre from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, believes that a panorama about the influence of the world’s financial crises upon poverty in Brazil will only be achieved after the next National Household Sample Survey.
At this moment of global crisis and scarcity of credits and private investments, the policies to fight hunger and poverty helps to support the purchasing power of the most economic affected classes.
According to the economist, whether on the one hand the crises has not been increasing hunger on the other hand it has been making a number of households – more than expected – to pressure the public power in order to gain social protection. All this brings into question – in Neri’s viewpoint – in what extent the background caused by public policies of income transfer will be efficient at counteracting the crises effects. The Professor believes that although the global crisis has not increased hunger in Brazil, it has been causing a reduction in the recovery of the lower classes income.