Poverty reduction rate declines despite high economic growth: World Bank

The rate of poverty reduction in Bangladesh has declined in recent times despite higher economic growth with only around 8 million people having come out of the poverty line during 2010-2016, a World Bank report reveals.

The development agency published the report titled "Bangladesh Poverty Assessment" in Dhaka today.

The report said over the past one and a half decades 25 million Bangladeshi people came out of the poverty line.

But, the rate of poverty reduction has declined since 2010 although the economic growth accelerated.

According to the report, employment rate has also not been rising compared to the robust growth of economy.

The report says Bangladesh needs traditional and new solutions to reduce poverty faster.

"To achieve its vision of upper-middle-income country by next decade, Bangladesh can build on its own experience of innovative policy experimentation to tackle poverty in a more sophisticated and urbanised economy," said Maria Eugenia Genoni, senior economist of the World Bank and a co-author of the report.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, the chief guest of the report launching event, said the government has emphasised education and technology to face the challenge of poverty.

"The government is deploying full effort to realise 100 economic zones. Poverty will be eliminated within 2030 and Bangladesh will reach the status of a rich country within 2041," he added.

According to the World Bank report, the job of ending extreme poverty in Bangladesh is not completed as about one in four Bangladeshis still lives in poverty, and almost half the poor people live in extreme poverty and are unable to afford basic food.

Besides, more than half of the population can be considered vulnerable to poverty as their levels of consumption are close to the poverty threshold.