Poverty-free Bangladesh in 4 years: Muhith

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“Some might call me crazy for saying this, but this country will be poverty free within 2018 … and there will be nothing called extremely poor in this country after 2021.”

Those who earn less than a dollar per day are considered poor by the United Nations, which means almost 1.2 billion of the world’s 6 billion people are poor.

Twenty-six percent of the people in Bangladesh live below the poverty line, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. The annual per capita income of the country is $1190.

No country in the world is completely free from poverty, which is why a country is called ‘poverty-free’ when less than 15 percent of its population live in poverty, said Muhith.

“According to our estimate, only 14 percent people in Bangladesh will be impoverished by 2018 and then the country will be called poverty-free.”

“The World Bank said we would be poverty free in 2030, but I can assure that no one will be extremely poor in Bangladesh after 2021.”

The finance minister was addressing a discussion organised by the Social Development Foundation at the LGED auditorium in Dhaka’s Agargaon.

Source: Bd news24