The Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions (JSLC) says that a general trend of inequality in consumption expenditure, which was bucked in 2014, resumed in 2015.

According to conclusions drawn from the 2015 survey, which were included in the JSLC report tabled in the House of Representatives last Tuesday, the increase in nominal consumption expenditure that year turned out to be the fourth lowest ever recorded since the survey started in 1988.

But despite this, Jamaican households actually increased their consumption of goods and services for the second consecutive year, after not recording a year-on-year decline since 2007.

The survey said that this was because Jamaica recorded its lowest level of inflation since 1967 in 2015, which helped households to more easily offset inflation and increase their consumption of goods and services.

But although a positive out-turn in consumption expenditure was recorded in each region and in each socio-economic group (quintile), the increase was more in favour of persons belonging to the upper socio-economic groups, as the inequality in spending increased in 2015, after falling in 2014.

The JSLC recorded that while there was reduction in poverty in the urban areas of Jamaica in 2015, a second year in a row, poverty still increased in rural areas. Consequently, the increase in poverty was mainly in rural areas.

The Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA) recorded the lowest poverty rate in 2015, while rural areas recorded the highest, with more than one in four persons in rural areas considered poor, compared with approximately one in seven in the KMA.

The reduction in poverty in the KMA and “other towns” has been attributed to growth in industries such as hotels and restaurants, real estate and renting, and business activities including business process outsourcing (BPO).

The JSLC said that poverty was higher among younger persons in 2015, and lower among persons in the older age groups.

“This is consistent with the fact that poor households generally comprised more children on average,” the survey stated.

The poverty rate for female-led households was higher than for male-led households, which is consistent with consumption expenditure being typically higher in male-led households. However, while the gap in per capita consumption expenditure widened between the two types of households (in favour of male-headed households), the gap in the poverty rate narrowed.