More Detail on the Poverty Findings

Macario Schettino notes that Mexico's Gini coefficient (0.485 on a scale from 0.0 to 1.0, with the latter being maximum inequality) in 2008 represents the "most equal distribution at any point in the century, and quite probably the best in history". He also notes that there's a great many contours (and errors) in the INEGI survey, many of which suggest that the idea of a wholesale explosion in poverty is incorrect.

For his part, Mexico's secretary of social development says that the recent findings are just a bad stretch, and that the overall poverty trend in Mexico is positive.