Montevideo, May 6 (RHC)-- The number of households and people in Uruguay that fell below the poverty line has increased dramatically during April, a study released by the country's Institute of Economics (IECON) revealed.

Based on data from the South American country’s Continuous Household Survey, the researchers who conducted the report analyzed the effects caused by the sending to unemployment insurance of some 140,000 formal workers, the loss of employment and income for informal workers, and self-employed workers and the main measures deployed by the government to mitigate the consequences of the new coronavirus pandemic.

According to the study's findings, the incidence of poverty has increased significantly to almost 12 percent (an increase of three points) in April, which means that between 94,000 and 127,000 people fell below the poverty line within said period of time.

The increase in poverty could be "eased" and even "neutralized" by means of monetary transfers, according to the researchers.   "We estimate that maintaining poverty at 2019 levels implies one additional billion pesos per month ($22 million).  Developing this policy for one year represents an annual cost of 0.44 percent of the GDP of 2019," concluded the economists.