SA excels at helping poor

South Africa leads in using taxes and transfer payments to help the extremely poor, a World Bank report shows.

"No other country of the 12 in the survey used its fiscal policy as effectively to reduce poverty," World Bank economist Catriona Purfield told The Times. The other countries surveyed included Bolivia‚ Brazil‚ Indonesia‚ Mexico‚ Uruguay and Peru.

In the 2010-2011 fiscal year about 3.6million South Africans were saved from abject poverty by social, child support and old-age grants.

"The cash transfers are extremely well targeted," said Purfield, but she stressed that inequality was still extreme in South Africa.

Source: The Times, via I-Net Bridge