SCIO briefing on poverty alleviation and development

CRI:

The World Bank hasadjusted the poverty line in Octoberby raisingpersonal income from US$1.25 to US$1.9 per day. The Chinese publichas shown great concern over the impact of the new standard on the country’s own poverty criterion. May I ask you to expound on the issue in this regard? Would you please explain to us the impact of the adjustment on the size of the poverty affected population and the evaluation of the achievements in view of poverty alleviation in China? Thank you.

Liu Yongfu:

The World Bank recently announced that the poverty line of the minimum income per person rose from US$1.25 to US$1.9 per day.However, the standards of poverty in the worldshould never bethe same as different countries havedifferent policies. China, for example, has maintained a criterion with the minimum income above 2,300 yuan (US$355.7) a year since 2010.This year, the minimum income has been raisedto about 3,000 yuan. However,to make international comparison and analysis on the minimum standard of poverty, we still need to adopt a method, such asPurchasing Power Parity (PPP). In accordance with the peculiar method, say the PPP, the minimum income reached 2,800 yuan last year, equal to US$2.2 per person a day, which is higher than the US$1.9 proclaimed by the World Bank with the samemethod of calculation. Our figure is slightly higher than the World Bank’s, which, however,doesn’t mean the criterion has never changed. We adjust the figure each year in accordance with the indexes of market prices and living expenses. It is flexible, though, with a curve of continuous increase in light ofabsolute figures. That is our situation.

Based on this criterion, the poverty stricken population in our country will never increase. Our present task, in line with our analysis, should concentrate on the more than 70 million destitute peopleso as to lift them out of poverty with categorized policies towards their different conditions. After the completion of this task, we need to hoist the standard of poverty to a new level in view of concrete situations. The change of the poverty standard by the World Bank has not extended considerable influence on the population or thecriterion of China’s poverty alleviation programs. It also has notaffected the evaluation of China’s contribution of poverty alleviation to the world.