Brasília – When the first effects of the 2014 economic crisis began, Brazil continued with a “genuine process of social change”, although the country could have improved more. The conclusion came from the survey Pnad 2014 – Short analyses, a technical report based on data taken from the National Survey per Household Sample (Pnad), released this Wednesday (30th) by the Department of Social Policies and Studies from the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea).
In Ipea analysis, the basic structure of social improvements that have been achieved since 2003 remains. There’s real growth of workers’ wages and the reducing of inequality, improvement of educational levels and of general living conditions and the reduction of the gaps separating black and white, women and men, rural and urban workers.
Pnad’s data shows a reduction of the extreme poverty rate in the last decade. In 2014, 2.48% of the population was in a situation of extreme poverty, a number 63% lower than in 2004. From 2013 to 2014, the extreme poverty rate dropped 29.8%, “a significant reduction”, says the text, which associates the decline to the maintenance of income improvement and reduction of inequalities.
However, the study considers that the speed of the social improvements in the last few years could have been better, “especially in the major topics of inequality”. Despite taking a glimpse of the effects of the 2014 crisis, it was not possible to measure its impacts just yet. This analysis, according to Ipea, will be made with more precision in the middle of 2016, when the 2015 data will be released.
In the labor sector, the data already shows the crisis’ impacts. The study points out that the improvement of the average workers’ real wages – which went over 7% in 2006 and close to 6% in 2012 – registered below 1% in 2014 for the first time in the time period considered.
Education is one of the areas in which the improvement could have been better. According to the study, this improvement needs to be quicker so the country can achieve the goals established in the National Education Plan (PNE), a law that set goals for education improvement until 2024. Although Brazil reached the national average of the ten years schooling- period, in 2014 the Northeast region had 9.2 years of schooling and the North region 9.3 years. Brazil’s poorest 25% of the population has only 8.2 years of schooling.
The Pnad 2014 – Short Analyses was organized by André Calixtre, director of Ipea’s Department of Social Studies and Polices. It gathers studies of several researchers, each one analyzing data on a specific topic. It’s Ipea’s interpretation of Pnad’s data, which is done by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
