Starting today....
with Fr Barr's article which questions official statistics showing a decline in poverty.
My guess is that Fiji, along with other liberal-driven economies, will also have experienced a widening gap between rich and poor, which adds to the societal costs of poverty.
What do you think of:
- The official statistics and Fr Barr's argument?
- Government actions and policy? Have they helped or worsened the situation? What can it do differently?
- What are the policies of the parliamentary opposition on poverty, wages and related issues?
Has Poverty in Fiji Really Declined?
Fr Kevin Barr
It was interesting
to read in The Fiji Times (April 22nd)
the announcement of Kelera Nokelevu from the Bureau of Statistics that the
incidence of poverty in Fiji has decreased enormously – from 35% in the 2003-4
Housing Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) to 31% in the 2008-9 HIES to 28.1%
in the 2013-14 HIES.
This would be
wonderful if it were true but, as I pointed out in a previous article, because
the World Bank analysed the data from the 2013-14 HIES, we need to serious
question the credibility of the results.
They will find what they want to find because they and the IMF have been
persuading our government to follow their neo-liberal, free market economic
policies which have recently been criticised for creating greater poverty and
inequality all around the world.
The credibility of
the recent results would need to be seriously questioned in view of the
following facts. If poverty stood at 31% in the 2008-9 HIES then it surely must
have worsened because:
· The devaluation of the Fiji dollar by
20% in April 2009 meant (according to the Bureau of Statistics) that the
Consumer Price Index for food increased by 38% and for building materials by
29%;
· In January 2011 VAT was increased by 2.5%
and, as everyone knows, VAT is a regressive tax;
· Electricity increased by 30% and water
costs also increased;
· Wages during this period did not increase
significantly so the high increase in the cost of living had serious
repercussions for the 60% of those in full-time employment whose wages were
already below the poverty line;
· There have also been other indicators which
are related to an increase in poverty:
-
Dramatic
increase in domestic violence;
-
Increase
in crime rates especially involving robbery;
-
Dramatic
increase in the numbers of people in squatter settlements because decent
affordable housing was not available;
-
Increase
in child labour.
For many years the IMF, the World Bank and the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) have been pushing the policies of Neo-Liberal Free-Market
Capitalism which underpins globalisation and have caused increasing poverty and
inequality around the world. Pascal Lamy (former Director of the WTO) said
recently: “Our world is sick and the cause of the sickness is the neo-liberal
policies we have been following.”
Christine Lagarde (Director of the IMF) confessed at Davos last year
that IMF policies have probably increased inequality around the world.
Over the years Fiji (like many other countries)
has been following (advised/or forced to follow) the policy directives of the
World Bank, the IMF, and the ADB despite the fact that these policies have
created greater poverty and inequality in other countries (as so many scholars
and economists have pointed out). The
findings of the Melzer Commission of the US Congress (2000) are still worth
repeating:
“ Neither the World Bank nor the regional
banks are pursuing the
set of activities that could best help the
world move rapidly toward
a world without poverty or even the lesser,
but more fully
achievable goal of raising living standards
and the quality of life,
particularly in the poorest nations of the
world.”
Also Oxfam based Duncan Green (2008: 296ff) states:
“For
much of the last 25 years the IMF and the World Bank have
been
pursuing nothing less than a radical overhaul of the way that
developing
countries run their economies. That role
has been
controversial
and, in many eyes, profoundly destructive ..... “
The credibility of
the analysis of our Housing Income and Expenditure data by the World Bank must
be seriously questioned. As I remarked some time ago, it is like the United States bringing in the Mafia to analyse
the crime statistics in the US . They will find what they want to find.
The separation of
poverty statistics for urban and rural areas can be useful but what is missing
is any recognition of the depth of poverty in these regions. Usually poverty is deeper in urban areas than
in rural areas.
Also what about
all those (35%?) who are living just above the poverty line and the extent of
inequality?
As Mr Lal remarked
at the recent Dialogue Fiji Conference, even if we accept that 28.1% of Fiji ’s
population are living in poverty, this is still a matter of grave concern and
quite unacceptable in view of the much taunted levels of increased economic
growth. The economy of a country must
benefit all its people – not just the few.
Not only do we
need an independent analysis of data from the Bureau of Statistics, we need
something of that “economic revolution” which Bernie Sanders is promoting in
the US
which is attracting the attention of so many people – especially the youth.
This “revolution” aims to “pull down the mighty from their thrones and lift up
the lowly” (to use biblical terminology) so that we have a more just, compassionate
and inclusive society.