WASHINGTON: The World Bank declared on Monday that for the first time in history those living in extreme poverty will be less than 10 per cent of the world population by the end of this year.

The bank is using a new income figure of $1.90 per day to define extreme poverty, up from $1.25.

It forecasts that the proportion of the world’s population in this category will fall from 12.8pc in 2012 to 9.6 by the end of 2015.

In the East Asia and Pacific region, 82.6 million are projected to be living in extreme poverty by the end of this year, representing a fall from 7.2pc of the population in 2012 to 4.1pc now. In 1990, 60pc of the region’s population lived in extreme poverty.

Extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is still very high, although it fell from 46.2pc in 2012 to 35.2pc at the end of 2015.

Sub-Saharan Africa still has about half of the world’s extreme poor. South Asia was also flagged as an area where extreme poverty was concentrated, despite major gains in reducing poverty.

Jim Yong Kim, president of World Bank Group, said the continued major reductions in poverty were due to strong growth rates in developing countries in recent years, investments in people’s education, health, and social safety nets that helped keep people from falling back into poverty.

He cautioned, however, that with slowing global economic growth, and with many of the world’s remaining poor people living in fragile and conflict-affected states, and the considerable depth and breadth of remaining poverty, the goal to end extreme poverty remained a highly ambitious target.

“This is the best story in the world today — these projections show us that we are the first generation in human history that can end extreme poverty,’’ Kim said.

“This new forecast of poverty falling into single digits should give us new momentum and help us focus even more clearly on the most effective strategies to end extreme poverty.

“It will be extraordinarily hard, especially in a period of slower global growth, volatile financial markets, conflicts, high youth unemployment, and the growing impact of climate change. But it remains within our grasp, as long as our high aspirations are matched by country-led plans that help the still millions of people living in extreme poverty.”

Published in Dawn, October 6th , 2015

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