Eighty percent of Venezuelans unable to afford food basket

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.eluniversal.com/economia/150423/eighty-percent-of-venezuelans-unable-to-afford-food-basket

Inflation and high food prices are hitting the life quality of Venezuelans, who cannot fully afford the local basic food basket. According to the results the National Life Conditions Survey (Encovi), 80% of Venezuelans said they have not enough money to buy food items.

This information was disclosed on Wednesday at the Simón Bolívar University (USB), which carried out such study along with the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) and the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB).

Marianella Herrera, from the Development Studies Center (Cendes-UCV) and PhD student of Nutrition at the USB, released the results of a nutrition and diet-focused research. Such results were obtained through a survey conducted among 1,749 homes nationwide back in 2014. "The perception that money is not enough to buy food items is a problem seen in all the (local) population strata," Herrera said.

Seemingly, the poll found that 11.3% of the local population prepares two or less meals per day, whereas 88.7% makes three meals. In the low-income sector, the percentage of Venezuelans eating twice or less a day stands at 39%, the researcher pointed out. "This figure is different from that of a poll conducted by the Central Bank of Venezuela in 2011, when less than 5% of Venezuelans said they had less than three meals per day," Herrera added.

[Bacchus4.0]

1. nt