MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A fifth of Spaniards living below the poverty shows latest stats

The poverty line stands at 7.355 Euros annually

Every fifth resident lives in poverty in Spain, new figures showed on Monday.
The national statistics institute INE said 21.1% of the 47-million population lives below the poverty line, meaning they live on less than 7,355 Euros (9,610 dollars) annually.

That is slightly less than a year ago, when the percentage stood at 21.8%. The apparent improvement, however, is only due to the increase of elderly people whose pensions constitute a relatively stable income, INE said.

But the number of minors aged under 16 living in poverty has increased to 21% from 19.4% in 2011.

Spanish families' medium annual income has dropped by 1.9% to 24.609 Euros. The number of households having a lot of difficulties to cover their costs went up to 12.7% from 9.8%. About 44% of Spanish families cannot afford to go on holiday.

Foreigners are more at risk of becoming poor - 6.2%- than Spaniards, 19.8% of who are at risk.

Charity organizations have warned about the growth of poverty in Spain. The country is experiencing its second recession in three years, while unemployment has rocketed to nearly 25%.

Critics attribute the spread of poverty partly to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's austerity policies. They nevertheless received the backing of voters on Sunday in elections in the north-western region of Galicia, where Rajoy's People's Party (PP) increased its absolute majority in the regional parliament.

Galicia has managed to keep its budget deficit low, unlike the central government, which is struggling to trim it from 9.4% in 2011 to 6.3% this year.

Since the real estate bubble burst back in 2008, Spanish families have been sustainedly loosing purchasing power because of the increase in unemployment and the pruning of public servants salaries.