China lifts over 68m people out of poverty in past five years


FE Team | Published: February 10, 2018 18:26:58 | Updated: February 12, 2018 14:19:58


Representational image (Collected)

China lifts at least 13 million people out of poverty each year, according to the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

The country's poverty rate dropped from 10.2 per cent in 2012 to 3.1 per cent in 2017, as it made impressive progress in the poverty reduction, the state council leading group said.

The second largest economic country of the world has lifted 68.53 million people out of poverty over the past five years, reports Xinhua.

The East Asian country aims to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020 as part of the creation of a moderately prosperous society.

There were around 30 million Chinese living below the national poverty line at the end of last year.

Policy makers have listed poverty alleviation as one of China's "three tough battles" for the next three years, along with risk prevention and pollution control. The year 2018 is a key year.

More than 10 million people will shake off poverty in 2018. About 100 counties are expected to be removed from the poverty list, according to the leading group.

A county can be removed from the list if no more than 2.0 per cent of its residents earn less than 2,300 yuan (around 350 US dollars) at 2010 prices.

In China's underdeveloped western regions, the threshold is 3.0 per cent.

There were still 30.46 million rural people living below the national poverty line at the end of 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

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