Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh has reduced its extreme poverty by 4.2 percent and poverty by 5.9 percent between 2010 and 2014 indicating significant progress in achieving the millennium development goal (MDG) of poverty reduction by 2015.
The rate of poverty reduction based on Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2000, 2005 and 2010, about 49 percent of the population lived in poverty in 2000, which was reduced to 40 per cent in 2005, to 31.5 percent in 2010 and to an estimated 25.6 percent in June 2014, the state-run Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) said.
On the other hand, more than 34 per cent people lived in extreme poverty which dropped to 25.1 percent in 2005, to 17.6 percent in 2010, to 13.1 percent in 2013 and to an estimated 12.4 percent in June 2014.
The rate of poverty reduction over the last four years was on an average 6.0 per cent which is the highest in the history of Bangladesh, experts said.
Terming the success in poverty reduction in Bangladesh a positive indicator, former adviser to caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman said the credit goes to all the successive governments from 2000 to present date.
“Three governments worked for poverty reduction during the said periods based on which BBS has analysed the poverty reduction trend. So no single government can claim the credit,” the former advisor was quoted by the Financial Express (FE) as saying.
He said Bangladesh is on track in achieving poverty reduction target but there are many other areas where the country will not be able to achieve the targets.
The BBS used to carry out household expenditure survey (HES) since 1973-74. After 1995 it included expenditure module. BBS has conducted 15 such surveys with a five-year pause. The next HIES will be conducted in 2015.
Based on 2010 HIES, the World Bank released Bangladesh Poverty Assessment Report on 20 June, 2013.
BBN/SSR/AD-28July14-12:30 pm (BST)
