MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maduro highlights improvement in malnourishment - only 7.7% of Venezuelans

“We must continue with food policies, care, and investment in our people,” Maduro insisted.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Thursday insisted that his administration was tackling the issue of malnourishment suffered by nearly 2.3 million people nationwide, according to the government's latest reports.

Maduro said that more work was required to help citizens who are not guaranteed a proper diet and underlined the notorious improvement from figures recorded in 2017 when nearly 11 million people were in this condition.

“The nutritional deficit has been lowered, which managed to be placed in 2017, a year of a brutal war, at 35.6%. Today we can say that we have a nutritional deficit, which we are going to continue attacking and solving, of 7.7%,” said Maduro, who also pointed out that his country's GDP had grown above 15% in 2022. According to Maduro, growth in the third quarter of 2021, was 15% and in the fourth quarter of the same year, it was 20.42%. Maduro also explained that, during the first quarter of 2022, there was a growth of 17.45 %, in the second quarter, 23.30%, and in the third quarter, it was of 13.22%.

According to the Survey on Living Conditions (Encovi) carried out by the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB), 53.3% of Venezuelans live below the extreme poverty line.

Maduro's remarks came while releasing the latest outlook, according to which after a five-year period (2015-2020) of a widespread shortage of products, supply closed 2022 at 97% at mass consumption retailing spots. “We must continue with food policies, care, and investment in our people,” Maduro insisted.