Following Sen’s proposal, Anthony Shorrocks modified the index, adjusting the normalization condition in order to satisfy the transfer axiom and to provide continuity (Shorrocks, 1995). These authors proposed an additively decomposable index based on Sen’s index, but in the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (fgt) indices poverty is aggregated using household shortfalls as weights (relative deprivation) instead of a rank order (Foster, Greer and Thorbecke, 1984). However, it is important to note that the most common poverty index (the poverty headcount index) fails to satisfy the monotonicity and transfer axioms, while the poverty gap index does not satisfy the transfer axiom (Sen, 1976).3 These axioms are important because poverty is a matter of degree or intensity and not a simplified poor/non-poor dichotomy, meaning that a true measure of poverty must take account of distribution among the poor or the severity of poverty. The crisis of 1999 has been extensively analysed for its effects on poverty and inequality (Larrea, 2004, World Bank, 2005).