Study finds 25 per cent fall in extreme poverty

NEW YORK - Extreme poverty in developing countries has fallen 25 per cent since 1990 and may be further halved as long as economic growth rates in those countries are sustained, says the World Bank.

The number of people in "extreme poverty", or living on US$1 a day, may be slashed to 600 million by 2015 from 1.1 billion in 2001, or 21 per cent of the population of developing countries, the bank says in its annual poverty report.

That figure was cut from 1.2 billion in 1990, even as the world population grew by about 750 million people in the 1990s.

But the study says poverty in Africa worsened and "malnutrition persists even in rapidly growing economies, and millions of people are hungry".

Developing Asian countries must sustain high growth rates, and Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa need to boost growth, the report says.

Countries need to improve access to schools, healthcare and sanitation, and provide equal opportunities for women, resolve conflicts and seek improved co-operation between the developing world and the industrialised countries.

"There is little doubt that the proportion of people living under $1 a day will be halved by 2015," said World Bank chief economist Francois Bourguignon.

China, the world's most populous country, is leading in poverty reduction. In 1980, more than 60 per cent of Chinese lived on less than US$1 a day. That number was halved by 1990 and again by 2001.

Excluding China, the poverty rate in developing countries has been falling by about half a per cent a year.

But the number of people on less than US$2 a day - including those living on less than US$1, increased to 2.7 billion in 2001 from 2.4 billion in 1981.

Those living in "extreme poverty" in sub-Saharan Africa rose to 46.4 per cent of the population in 2001, or about 313 million people, from 44.6 per cent in 1990.

Extreme poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean fell to 9.5 per cent of the population in 2001 from 11.3 per cent in 1990.

South Asia cut extreme poverty to 31.3 per cent, or about 431 million, from 41.3 per cent, while East Asia, cut extreme poverty to 14.9 per cent from 29.6 per cent.

- BLOOMBERG