WB says extreme poverty population declines, more efforts needed

The prize-winning entries are announced in the awards ceremony of "Zoom-in on Poverty Global Photo Contest" co-sponsored by Xinhua News Agency and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Beijing on Oct. 17, 2011 for international photographers who have excelled in the contest focusing on the global fight against poverty. <Photo DB: Xinhua>

The World Bank said Wednesday that the extreme poverty population in every region of the developing world declined by 13 million between 2005 and 2008, but more efforts are needed to fight against it.

The Washington-based institution said in a report about 1.29 billion people lived below 1.25 U.S. dollars a day in 2008, equivalent to 22 percent of the population of the developing world.

In 2005, more than 1.38 billion people, or about 25 percent of the population of the developing world, lived under the extreme poverty line, the report said.

About 14 percent of the population in East Asia and the Pacific region lived under extreme poverty line in 2008, down from 17 percent in 2005.

Extreme poverty rate in Eastern Europe and the Central Asia declined to 0.5 percent in 2008, down from 1.3 percent in 2005, according to the report.

Martin Ravallion, director of the Bank’s Research Group, said though the developing world has made considerable progress in fighting extreme poverty, around 1 billion people would still live in extreme poverty in 2015 at the current rate of progress.

Jaime Saavedra, director of the World Bank’s poverty reduction and equity group, also said “Having 22 percent of people in developing countries still living on less than 1.25 dollars a day and 42 percent with less than 2 dollars a day is intolerable.”

He called for continued efforts to fight poverty, including creating more and better jobs, delivering better educational and health services for the vulnerable.

The World Bank said the 1.25-U.S.-dollar marker of extreme poverty is the average of the world’s poorest 10 to 20 countries. The median poverty line for developing countries is2 dollars a day. <Xinhua>

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