REPORT: POVERTY DECLINE IN ST. KITTS A Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) study indicates that poverty is on the decline in St. Kitts. The Report, which does not include Nevis, also shows a drop in household poverty, a significant decrease in indigents and an unemployment rate of 6.3 percent. Minister of State for Information, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty said the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Administration will also redouble its efforts to reduce the poverty rate to less than 10 percent in the next five years. In the Post Cabinet Briefing, Minister Carty said Ministers under the Chairmanship of Prime Minster Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas reviewed the draft Country Poverty Assessment (CPA) report conducted by KAIRI, which assessed the unemployment rate was assessed at 6.3 percent. He said the research for the CPA was conducted in 2007/2008 and statistics reveal that the poverty rate for individuals stood at 23.7 percent as opposed to 30.5 percent when a similar exercise was conducted in 2000. “It must be remarked however, that this assessment was done prior to the minimum wage increasing from $250 to $320, and at a time when the price of fuel and electricity rates were exorbitantly high,’said Minister Carty, who also disclosed that the household poverty rate dropped from 16 percent in 2000 to 14.8 percent in 2007/2008. He said also that the rate of indigence among individuals dropped from 11 percent in 2000 to 1.4 percent in 2007/2008. “The proportion of persons living in poor quality housing moved from 30.5 percent in 2000 to 7.5 percent in 2007/2008. The proportion of the housing assessed to be of poor quality is 8.6 percent.”Carty disclosed. He said that the poverty line for St. Kitts was estimated to be at EC$7,329 per adult per year or approximately $140 per adult per week.
