Spanish wealth gap biggest in Europe, says charity
Top 20% of Spanish
society now seven and a half times richer than bottom fifth, with number of
millionaires up 13% in year
Spain
is the most unequal society in Europe,
according to a report that finds three million Spaniards now live in conditions
of "extreme poverty", and another study that shows the number of
millionaires has increased.
A report by the Catholic charity Caritas says more
than 6% of Spain's population of 47 million lived on €307 a month or less in
2012, double the proportion in 2008 before Spain was hit by the recession,
which has left 26% of its workforce unemployed.
A separate study by Credit Suisse
finds that the number of millionaires in Spain rose to 402,000 last year, an
increase of 13% on 2011, emphasising the ever-widening gap between rich and
poor.
Announcing the findings of the
Caritas report at a press conference in Madrid, Sebastian Mora, general
secretary of the charity's Spanish arm, warned of "a situation of neglect,
injustice and the dispossession of people's most basic rights".
He said that while poverty was
widespread in Spain, it mainly affected the most vulnerable. The economic
crisis had "produced a weakening of family ties and other safety nets,
particularly in the public sector".
The top 20% of Spanish society is
now seven and a half times richer than the bottom fifth, which reflects the
biggest divide in Europe, says Caritas.
"The report paints a picture
of a more fractured, more divided society, where the middle-class is
disappearing and a minority has access to wealth, goods and services while the
majority sits outside," Mora said.
The governing rightwing People's
party has introduced a series of austerity measures to deal with public debt
that is nearly 100% of GDP, but many fear that these are hitting the poorest
sectors of society disproportionately hard.
Six years ago Spain's economy was
heralded as one of Europe's great success stories, and in 2007 it created
nearly half the new jobs in the eurozone. But its unemployment rate is now
second only to that of Greece, and economists see little light at the end of
the tunnel.
This week the Council of Europe's
commissioner for human rights, Nils Muižnieks, issued a report warning that "cuts in
social, health and educational budgets" had led to a worrying growth of
family poverty in Spain. "This has had a particularly negative impact on
the enjoyment of human rights by children and persons with disabilities."
This week, the OECD's first
global study of adult skills revealed that Spain came bottom for levels of
literacy and numeracy in a list of 24 countries, raising concerns about its
ability to emerge successfully from the crisis in the near future.
The OECD survey found that one in
four Spaniards between 16 and 65 scored the lowest levels of literacy, and one
in three the lowest levels of mathematical proficiency.
The Spanish government argues
that it has stabilised the economy after years of recession, but economists
believe a complete overhaul is necessary, as any recovery remains vulnerable to
internal and external changes of fortune.