C0vid-19 crisis could push 700,000 people in Spain into poverty and widen wealth gap

THE Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy could push 700,000 people in Spain into poverty and widen the country’s wealth gap, according to Oxfam Intermon.

The NGO’s ‘A fair and necessary reconstruction is possible’ report predicts the estimated nine per cent drop in GDP and 19 per cent rise in unemployment will increase relative poverty by 1.6 per cent to 23.1 per cent of the population. In other words, the crisis will leave 10.8 million Spaniards in poverty.

Oxfam Intermon expects the Balearic Islands, Castilla y Leon, Aragon and Cataluña to register the biggest per cent rises. In absolute terms, it forecasts Andalucia will see the most people fall into poverty, with 201,000 more.

The report also says that income inequality will increase by 1.7 per cent on the Gini Index, the coefficient commonly used to measure nations’ inequality levels. In Spain it will therefore reach 34.2, compared with 32.5 pre-crisis.

Andalucia will have the biggest rise in inequality, the organisation concludes, followed by the Canary Islands and Extremadura.

By contrast, the NGO found that Spain’s 23 billionaires saw the value of their wealth go up by some €19,200 million between the middle of March and the beginning of June.