South Asia, South East Asia

$1.25/day Isn’t Enough for the Asian Extreme Poor

photo credit: kPluto
photo credit: kPluto

In a recent report, Asian Development Bank (ADB) finds that $1.25/day is not enough to maintain minimum welfare in Asia.

In terms of the $1.25/day poverty line, poverty headcount ratio decreased to 12 percent and 31 percent in East Asia and South Asia in 2010, respectively. However, their new calculation of extreme poverty headcount is 49.5 percent in Asia. Their projection also shows that there would be over 17 percent of the people living in extreme poverty in 2030. The huge gap between the conventional method and the new one is mainly caused by the impact estimation of vulnerability. Dr. Guanghua Wan, Principal Economist at ADB, argues that vulnerability is critically important for the poor in Asia but not seriously considered in the poverty calculation.

Reference
ADB (2014) Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2014
DW (2014) Interview of Guanghua Wan, Principal Economist at Asian Development Bank.

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