Mexico’s poverty rate declines from 50% to 43.5% in four years as remittances almost double

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The poverty rate in Mexico has declined from 49.9% to 43.5% of the population, according to the country’s poverty analysis agency. The agency published a study Thursday showing the decline in poverty over a four-year period from 2018 to 2022. The reduction means there were 5.7 million fewer people who reported incomes below the cost of the market basket for basics like food and clothing. It was unclear what was responsible for the reduction in poverty. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in December 2018, and since then has more than doubled the country’s minimum wage. But remittances — the money sent home by Mexicans working abroad — have also almost doubled in that period.