Extreme poverty to fall below 10% for first time: World Bank

For the first time less than 10 per cent of the world’s population will be living in extreme poverty by the end of 2015.
It was revealed by the World Bank report projections released by Bank President Jim Yong Kim in Washington, US.
According to World Bank projections

• About 702 million people or 9.6 per cent of the world population will live below the poverty line in 2015 and mostly it will comprise populations from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
• There is continuous decline in extreme poverty as result of dynamic economic growth in developing nations and investment in education and health as well as social safety nets.
• There is decline in extreme poverty in Asia (particularly India) and South America. However slowdown in emerging markets worldwide and in Latin America may spurt extreme poverty.
• East Asia and Pacific region was mainly focused in this projections but the reliable data was not available in parts of the West Asia and North Africa because of conflict.

Previously, World Bank had defined extreme poverty as people living on 1.25 US dollar or less a day. Now it has been revised to 1.90 US dollar a day to reflect inflation.
Currently, United Nations (UN) defines poverty based on the World Bank’s income measure. UN recently also has announced its aim to end extreme poverty by 2030 as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2015