Podgorica, (MINA-BUSINESS) – President of the Food Bank Foundation Marina Medojevic has said that there are 123,540 people in Montenegro whose monthly income is below an absolute poverty line, which raises the poverty rate to 19.99 percent.
She said that, according to Monstat, the income of only 27,800 Montenegrin citizens is lower than €192 a month, adding however that the real situation was very different.
“There were 50,260 unemployed people in Montenegro last year, 26,870 were beneficiaries of family welfare, the pensions of 10,000 pensioners were lower than €192, while the salaries of 36,640 working people were lower than €192,” Medojevic said in a press release.
According to her, these categories of the population add up to 123,540 people with monthly income below the absolute poverty line.
“This analysis of number and structure of people whose monthly income is below the poverty line clearly indicates that the results of Monstat’s surveys are far from reflecting the actual situation and that they cannot assess the level, structure and scope of poverty in Montenegro in a realistic way,” said Medojevic.
She said that, after four years of pause, Monstat had published the poverty statistics, according to which the absolute poverty line is €192, while the equivalent consumption of only 4.4 percent of the population was lower than that.
“These surveys suggest that extreme poverty in Montenegro declined from 8.6 percent in 2013 to 4.4 percent last year. According to these analyses, the poverty in Montenegro decreased by 51 percent in this four-year period,” said Medojevic.
She said that the Food Bank was very surprised with these figures, as it knew from direct communication with vulnerable groups that the actual situation was completely opposite.
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