The transitional crisis making Madagascans poorer than ever

Madagascar is a poor country deemed to remain so for even longer. The year 2010´s poverty rate has reached 76.5%. People are internationally rated as poor when earning less than a dollar a day, namely 750,000 Ariary a year. Madagascans are earning in average 468,000 Ariary a year, namely 230 dollars a year to make a living, according to these standards.

Poor households have 60% of their income dedicated to food supply. Everything else in no priority: homes are despicable, children do not go to school, and healthcare is off the point… The access to drinking water is equally a poverty index. In Antananarivo, the capital city, 40% of the population are concerned. The newly rated as poor regions are the Anosy and the SAVA.

The middle class is finding it hard to develop with so many poor people all around.  Only 10% of the population are financially safe. These consumers are regularly consuming 5 times more than the others. Spending power remains however generally very low. The basic pay is the same as 30 liters of fuel, not even a third of an unlimited internet connection fee, definitely not enough to purchase any pair of top class shoes

The average Madagascan Joe is nevertheless a hard working one. The unemployment rate is reaching 4%,  plus one point in 2010. The figure is actually not absolute, since more than 50% of Madagascan workers have no regular income. The casual “do-it-yourself” is generating money most of the time, not enough for a decent living, but enough anyway to be considered as an employed individual by statistics. During working hours, streets are usually overcrowded with people trying to make their live on their own.

Madagascar´s problem is consequently the employment situation: the worker does not earn enough to make a living, and, if ever possible, has to work thrice more than usual to earn a wee bit more. Young graduates are compelled to look for small jobs with indefinite or no contract at all. Worse, 30% of youngsters aged less than 15 have to work.

The HAT´s solution is made a row of spectacular announcements of incoming large scale projects, and anti liberal interventions meant to lower basic goods´ prices, with no much success. The ruling power is adopting popular measures, with very few positive effects. The state is straining to influence supplies by resorting to imports of rice and sugar. The promised 10% high salary rise  has not yet produced any effect