Extreme Poverty Drops Worldwide - first MDG goal achieved ahead of schedule
The world has achieved its first Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty in half ahead of the 2015 deadline, a study by the World Bank shows.
The bank defines extreme poverty as living on under $1.25 per day, adjusted for purchasing power parity. According to the report (http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/0,,contentMDK:23129612~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469372,00.html), released this week, 1.29 billion people, or 22 percent of the developing world’s population, live below $1.25 a day, down from 52 percent in 1981.
“The developing world has made considerable progress in fighting extreme poverty,” said Martin Ravallion, the director of the bank’s research group, although that doesn’t mean they have comfortable lives. “The 663 million people who moved above the poverty lines typical of the poorest countries are still poor by the standards of middle- and high-income countries.”
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/extreme-poverty-drops-worldwide/