27th June, 2014
The report of a survey conducted by an institute at the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Brazil, has said that Brazilians have continued to rank as the people with the most confidence about the future.
According to the Gallup World Poll, a survey conducted by the Gallup Institute and released to newsmen covering the ongoing World Cup, it graded Brazil on a scale of 8.8 of 0 to 10.
It also noted that Brazil once again topped the ranking for the eighth consecutive year.
“Nobody sees the future with as much optimism as Brazilians,” said Marcelo Neri, Minister of Brazil’s Secretariat of Strategic Affairs.
In the survey, conducted in 138 countries, Brazilians rated their current living conditions and the provisions offered by the country with a score of 7.1 out of 10 — the highest for Brazil in the series.
That score placed Brazil 14th in this category ahead of countries, including Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Russia, India, China, Chile, Peru and Colombia.
The report was presented at the João Saldanha Open Media Centre in Rio de Janeiro by Minister Neri.
He attributed Brazil’s positive performance to three main drivers — the country’s reduced levels of inequality and extreme poverty and the continued growth of income in Brazil.
The other is increase in the number of Brazilians who now own facilities such as homes and cars.
“The life of Brazilians is improving,” said the Minister, adding: “We are experiencing a profound transformation in the country. It is not just about income. It has to do with education and other factors as well.
“In the Northeast, child mortality rates fell by 58 per cent. What can be more important than that?”
For the minister, Brazil’s greatest transformation over the last 10 years was the reduction of extreme poverty with results that exceeded the Millennium Development Goal target set by the United Nations.
“In 2000, the UN stipulated that countries should reduce levels of extreme poverty by 50 per cent by 2015.
“In 2012, we had already reduced that rate by 70 per cent. The biggest reason for this reduction is improvement in labour income,” he said.
According to him, another important factor is the Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer programme which he considers to have had a spectacular supporting role in the process.
Neri also cited data from the Monthly Employment Survey (PME), conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The data showed that inequality levels had decreased and average real income had increased in Brazil by 4.35 per cent.
He said it was above GDP in the 12 months ending in April 2014, which was an up-to-date data available in the full survey.
The PME data also presents other positive indicators which indicated that “the median Brazilian experiences Chinese-levels of income growth which is 6.8 per cent above GDP”.
“The income of women, black people and those with lower levels of education, all traditionally excluded groups, have increased even further.”