TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras.- The presidential candidate for the Salvadoran Party of Honduras (PSH), Salvador NasrallaHe said on September 6 that Honduras is the poorest country in Central America.
“Honduras is currently the poorest country in Central America,” Nasralla said during his campaign launch. From the minute 25:00 can be seen the statements of the candidate:
According to the head of the Department of Economics at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), Henry Rodriguez, The country has always had high percentages of poverty because there are periods where it increases and in others decreases product of short-term poverty.
“With health crises and natural phenomena, the country has reached alarming times that had not been experienced before, we have gone from the 59% we had to 70% of the population that is in poverty; that is worrying, ”he lamented.
“In Honduran households there is extreme poverty with a figure of 53.4%,” he said.
According to a UNAH study, poverty in Honduras increased to 70% in 2020, with a rise of 10.7% compared to 59.3% in 2019, driven by the covid-19 pandemic and hurricanes Eta and Iota.
“The average behavior of Honduras’ economic growth between 2001 and 2020 was 3.3%, a figure that has been insufficient to significantly reduce poverty levels and boost economic development, generating only a false illusion of welfare “, detailed the highest house of studies.
Official figures compiled by THE HERALD point out that, in Central America, Honduras is the country with the highest number of citizens living in poverty (70%).
Then there is Guatemala with 59% of its population on the poverty line; followed by Nicaragua (46.3%), El Salvador (32.2%), Belize (33%), Panama (20.8%) and Costa Rica (18.9%).
The Human Development Index (HDI), an indicator that measures a country’s development by analyzing health, education and income, developed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), was also analyzed.
According to the 2019 HDI, Honduras has the lowest rate in Central America (the higher the HDI the better); is in position 132 with a value of 0.634.
Ascending is followed by Nicaragua with (0.660), Guatemala (0663), El Salvador (0673), Belize (0716), Costa Rica (0810) and Panama (0815).
conclusions
According to data corroborated by this team, Honduras is the poorest country in Central America, with 70% of its population in poverty. The country also has the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) in the region.
Therefore, the assertion of presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla that Honduras is the poorest country in Central America is described by this medium as true.