Global poverty has fallen: WB

Though food, fuel and financial crises over the past four years left sharp negative impacts on vulnerable populations, both the percentage of people living on less than $1.25 a day and number of poor have declined in every region of the developing world between 2005 and 2008, reads a latest report of the World Bank.
The across-the-board reduction in poverty over a three-year monitoring cycle marks a first drop since the bank began monitoring extreme poverty.
The WB estimates in 2008 said 1.28 billion people lived below $1.25 a day, which is equivalent to 22 percent of the population of the developing world. By contrast, in 1981, 1.94 billion people were living in extreme poverty.
The WB drew such conclusion based on over 850 household surveys done in nearly 130 countries. 2008 is the latest date for which a global figure has been calculated.
The report notes that the population living in extreme poverty in South Asia has fallen the most since 1981. According to the WB, the $1.25 a day poverty rate in the region has fallen from 61 percent of 1981 to 32.5 percent in 2005
The survey of the Bank on global poverty update says that the $1.25 a day poverty rate has fallen by more than half of its 1990 value by 2010. “This means, the global leaders at a macro level have achieved the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving poverty from its 1990 level before the 2015 deadline,” states a WB press statement.
Although the report acknowledges developing world of making a considerable progress in fighting extreme poverty, it cautions that the 663 million people, who moved above the poverty lines in the poorest countries, are still poor by the standards of middle- and high-income countries.
According to Martin Ravallion, director of the WB´s Research Group, at the current rate of progress, around 1 billion people would still live in extreme poverty in 2015.
The $1.25 poverty line is an average for the world´s poorest 10 to 20 countries. A higher line of $2 a day (the median poverty line for developing countries) reveals less progress versus $1.25 a day. “The number of people living below $2 per day between 1981 and 2008 dropped only modestly from 2.59 billion to 2.44 billion,” reads the statement.
The bank has expressed dissatisfaction over the compellation of 22 percent of people in developing countries to living on less than $1.25 a day and 42 percent with less than $2 a day. It has stressed the global leaders to increase their efforts to improve their situation.
“We need to continue attacking poverty on many fronts, from creating more and better jobs, to delivering better educational and health services and basic infrastructure, to protecting the vulnerable. And countries, particularly in low-income countries need to expand data collection and strengthen statistical capacity,” the statement quotes Jaime Saavedra, director of the WB´s Poverty Reduction and Equity Group as saying.
According to the statement, in East Asia and Pacific had about 14 percent of population living below $1.25 a day in 2008, whereas it was 77 percent in 1981. In China, 13 percent, or 173 million people, lived below $1.25 a day in 2008.
In the developing world outside China, the extreme-poverty rate was 25 percent in 2008, down from 41 percent in 1981 as per the WB statistics.