figure ii shows clearly that most of the countries of the region are not just below the diagonal with inequality indices low er in than in they are well below it the gini coefficient fell by at least per year in of countries the countries with the most significant decreases were argentina the bolivarian republic of venezuela nicaragua and the plurinational state of bolivia all of which saw their gini coefficient fall by more than a year even though the inequality indicators for the dominican republic and costa rica did not improve they did not go up appreciably either see figure ii