Peru Ahead on U.N. Millenium Development Goal Targets for 2015

http://www.peruviantimes.com/20/peru-ahead-on-u-n-millenium-development-goal-targets-for-2015/20269/

September 20, 2013 12:23 pm0 commentsViews: 163
Peru has reached the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals of reducing the infant mortality rate and also the extreme poverty and poverty rates, in advance of the 2015 target. The announcement was made by United Nations representative Rebeca Arias in Lima this week.

Arias said the poverty reduction has been due to Peru’s economic expansion, which has been moving at a brisk 6 percent clip over the past decade.

Arias noted that since 2000, Peru has reduced its overall poverty rate, not just extreme poverty, in half. Infant mortality has also halved in Peru in that time, making it one of the top countries in the world in that area.

----------------------
However, there is still a great deal to be done, Arias noted. She mentioned the wide gap between rich and poor, and the extent to which poverty remains widespread in rural areas, as issues that require future improvement in the Andean country. Although the poverty rate is now 25.8% —compared to some 51% in 2000— rural poverty is still more than 50%, and the gap between urban and rural living standards is still wide.