Correa's presidency was part of the Latin American pink tide, a turn toward leftist governments in the region, allying himself with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela and brought Ecuador into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in June 2009. Using its own form of 21st century socialism, Correa's administration increased government spending, reducing poverty, raising the minimum wage and increasing the standard of living in Ecuador. By the end of Correa's tenure, reliance on oil, public expenditures, 2016 earthquakes (more than 650 deaths and damage estimated at the equivalent of about 3% of GDP), and international pressure caused Ecuador's economy to enter a recession, resulting in government spending being slashed. Between 2006 and 2016, poverty decreased from 36.7% to 22.5% and annual per capita GDP growth was 1.5 percent (as compared to 0.6 percent over the prior two decades). At the same time, inequalities, as measured by the Gini coefficient, decreased from 0.55 to 0.47.