Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday that though Brazilian people's livelihood had been improved, the distribution of wealth in the country must improve at a faster pace.
In his weekly radio show "Breakfast with the President", Lula commented on the results of a study released last Thursday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), which showed that several of the country's social indicators have improved.
"The figures are satisfactory: our Gini index in 2002 was 0.563and now it is 0.528, which is an unequivocal proof that people's lives are improving. But I would have been happier if things were improving faster. We will keep on working, so things will improve at a faster pace," he said.
The Gini index is used by the United Nations to measure the level of social inequality in a country: the lower the index, the more equal the society is.
The IBGE study showed that the country's unemployment rate fell to 10 percent, and that Brazilian workers' average income increased by 3.2 percent in 2007, reaching 956 reais (531 U.S. dollars). The president considered that growth to be "above average", but admitted that there was still too much to be done.
Lula said it necessary to be bolder to fight against poverty in Brazil's northern and northeastern regions, the poorest in the country.
He will meet with the governors of the 16 northern and northeastern states to discuss ways to improve the local life conditions, and take illiteracy rates and basic sanitation in the areas as matters which must be addressed.
"We need to work harder to launch these areas' growth, in order to make Brazil fairer, less unequal," Lula said.
Source:Xinhua
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