In an attempt to help fam­i­lies meet the increases in Brazil­ian food prices, lessen the effects of the eco­nomic cri­sis, and increase con­sumer spending–the Brazil­ian gov­ern­ment increases their anti-poverty stipend. Reported in Bloomberg, by Iuri Dan­tas and Andre Soliani.

Brazil­ian Pres­i­dent Luiz Ina­cio Lula da Silva raised the ben­e­fit in the country’s flag­ship anti– poverty pro­gram by 9.7 per­cent seek­ing to ease the impact of the eco­nomic cri­sis on the poor­est citizens.

The min­i­mum monthly amount paid by the so-called “Bolsa Familia” will be raised to 68 reais ($36.5) in Sep­tem­ber from 62 reais now, a decree pub­lished in the government’s gazette said.

Faster eco­nomic growth cou­pled with Lula’s social pro­grams helped lift 16.5 mil­lion Brazil­ians out of poverty between 2003 and 2007, accord­ing to the government’s Insti­tute of Applied Eco­nomic Research.

“The increase has a dou­ble effect: it helps pro­tect the poor from the global cri­sis and stim­u­late the econ­omy by increas­ing con­sump­tion,” Neri said.

The anti-poverty pro­gram, which was cre­ated in Octo­ber 2003, pro­vides cash pay­ments to 11.4 mil­lion fam­i­lies, accord­ing to the Social Devel­op­ment Ministry.

The total bud­get for the “Bolsa Familia” this year will be increased to about 12 bil­lion reais, from an orig­i­nal fore­cast of 11.4 bil­lion reais, the min­istry said today. The pro­gram is expected to ben­e­fit a total of 12.9 mil­lion fam­i­lies by the begin­ning of next year.

Like

Unlike