Post by Bozur on Nov 23, 2008 13:13:11 GMT -5
Bangladesh Could Halve Poverty By 2015: World Bank
By REUTERS
Published: November 23, 2008
DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh is on track to halve poverty levels by 2015 after significant progress over the past decade despite a series of external shocks, the World Bank said on Sunday.
Nearly 40 percent of Bangladesh's over 140 million people live on less than $1 a day and spend 70 percent of their income on food.
Bangladesh's gross domestic product (GDP) has grown on average more than 6 percent annually over the last few years and has been forecast to maintain the same level in the fiscal year to June 2009, officials said.
If current growth rates are maintained, along with stable inequality and a continued reduction in fertility, Bangladesh will achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015, the World Bank said in a report.
Rapid growth in international remittances helped to reduce poverty but the western part of the country lagged the eastern part, the report said.
Remittance from more than 5 million Bangladeshis working overseas hit $7.91 billion in the year to June 2008, nearly a third more than the previous year, and are likely to hit $10 billion over the next year.
"Malnutrition remains unacceptably high, which may have been worsened by the recent food price shock," the report said.
"To protect the vulnerable, the existing safety net programs needs to be more coordinated, like the recent reform in the Philippines to set up a central coordinating body," said Xian Zhu, the bank's Bangladesh country director.
Earlier a World Bank study revealed that soaring food prices had pushed more than 4 million Bangaldeshis back into poverty.
Due to a sharp increase in the number of people entering the job market, around 2.2 million new jobs will need to be created per year over the next decade, twice the rate of job creation between 2000-05, the report said.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by David Cowell)
www.nytimes.com/