Bangladesh’s extreme poverty rate has dropped to 12.9 percent of the total population in 2015-16, the World Bank says.
In its ‘Bangladesh Development Update’, released on Monday, the multi lateral lending agency said it has come down from 13.8 percent in the previous 2014-15.
WB Dhaka office’s Lead Economist Zahid Hussain highlighted the key features of the report on Monday at a media conference.
He said they have calculated the rate of extreme poverty based on Bangladesh’s 7.1 percent GDP growth in FY 2016.
“Bangladesh’s achievement is better than India, Pakistan and Bhutan,” said Hussain, the author of the report launched on Monday.
The World Bank said in a statement that under the new poverty line based on 2011 purchasing power, 28 million, or 18.5 percent of Bangladeshis lived in extreme poverty in 2010.
More than 16 million people in Bangladesh graduated from extreme poverty between 2000 and 2010.
“The success of Bangladesh’s development experience in innovations such as conditional cash transfers, gender equity in education, and successful family planning is reflected in its notable reduction of poverty and improvement in the lives of its citizens,” the statement quoted WB Country Director Qimiao Fan saying.
Source: Bd news24