Progress Toward Ending Poverty Slows: World Bank

The World Bank on Friday said global poverty decreased by less than half percentage point per year between 2015 and 2017, raising concerns about reaching the 3% target by 2030 without substantial policy action.

"Additional global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and conflict are likely to push this goal even farther away," according to the global financial body's blog.

The latest poverty estimates show that 9.2% of the global population lived below the $1.90-a-day international poverty line in 2017, it added.

It noted this amounts to 689 million people living in extreme poverty, 28 million fewer than in 2016 and 52 million fewer than in 2015.

Despite this fall in the number of poor, the recently published poverty report paints a sobering picture of progress toward the 2030 goal of reducing global poverty to below 3%. -