Today’s paper edition of Peru’s daily “La Republica” reported that 67.4% of Peruvians have not felt the benefit of the economic growth in Peru, this according to the survey carried out by CPI, that interviewed 1300 people with a margin of error of 2.9%.
It’s a bit weird when you first look at it, because as a friend commented today,this certainly doesn’t tally with other numbers, not least of which being the rise in food consumption, growth in non-essential service sectors (Peru is in its first generation of poodle hairstylists) and all that jazz.
Even the poor end of the social strata has felt some benefit, with mains electricity and water/sewage connections rising even in rural areas and poverty levels that have dropped steadily since 2004. Don’t think this is flattery to the gov’t, though; they are still abysmal, but just a bit less abysmal than before.
So how come 67.4% (plus or minus 2.9%) of Peruvians are convinced their lot hasn’t changed for the better? Well, for one thing it’s human nature not to notice slow changes in circumstance. Another is that the population gets force-fed the great macro numbers by the spin-machines on a daily basis, and after a while even you would begin to wonder where your slice of the 2007 8.99% GDP growth was hiding. So there’s a touch of “grass is greener” going on here.
But the main problem is the question itself. It works like this:
“Scuse me sir…can I ask you a couple of questions?”
“ok.”
“Thank you. So, question 1: Garcia sucks, no?”
“Ain’t that the truth.”
“Question 2: You seen the price of bread recently? Isn’t inflation crazy, eh?”
“Absolutely.”
“Question 3: So how are you doing at home? Things better than they were before?”
“You must be joking! With the price of bread going up and that clown in power….”
Ok, so I may be exaggerating a touch, but you get the picture.
But all the same, this survey does reflect that people are getting fed up with the way things are. They may have a new toaster, but that won’t stop people from gauging Garcia’s deeds against the panacea he promised as candidate.