Income inequality in Brazil

Brazil has been tackling problems of income inequality despite high rates of growth. Its GDP growth in 2010 was 7.5%. In recent decades, there has been a decline in inequality for the country as a whole. Brazil's GINI coefficient, a measure of income inequality, has slowly decreased from 0.596 in 2001 to 0.543 in 2009. However, the numbers still point to a rather significant problem of income disparity.

The country's high income concentration is depicted by the richest one per cent of the population (less than 2 million people) having 13 percent of all household income. This percentage is similar to that of the poorest 50 per cent - about 80 million Brazilians. This inequality results in poverty levels that are inconsistent with an economy the size of that of Brazil.