On growth economy versus reality. A study released earlier this year indicates that 680 million Indians live in absolute deprivation. There are thus more people living in extreme poverty in India than in sub-Saharan Africa. This is all despite the comparatively high growth rates and the rhetoric of India Shining. So high growth rates are not necessarily going to end inequality. A standard way to measure poverty is to calculate what percentage of a country’s population lives on less than $2 per day, factoring in purchasing power parity. In three African countries – Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Liberia – more than 90 percent of the population gets by on under $2 per day. In Nigeria, which is an oil exporter, 84 percent of the population survives on $2 per day. Bangladesh, which clothes the world in cotton, has three quarters of its population living under that barrier. Staying with cotton producers, four West African countries – Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali – are among the poorest countries in the world, all with at least three quarters of the population in poverty.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 11:55:09 +0000
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