BEIJING
More than 82 million people in China live under the country’s poverty line, the government has announced.
"Up to the end of 2013, demographically, 82.49 million people are still trapped in poverty according to China's poverty line, and 200 million according to the international one,” said Zheng Wenkai, vice-minister of the State Council Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, the Communist Party’s Global Times news website reported Wednesday.
"It's a tough nut to crack. Poverty is a weak point for our goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020," Zheng was quoted as saying at a press conference in Beijing Tuesday.
The country will observe its first Poverty Alleviation Day on October 17 - the day marked by the U.N. as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty – in an attempt to raise public awareness about “the poor and pro-poor programs.”
In China, the poverty line stands at less than $1 a day, while the World Bank measures extreme poverty as below $1.25 a day in 2005 prices. Residents in rural China with an annual net income of around $375 or less are considered poor by the Chinese standard, adopted in 2011.
Zheng explained that difficulties in confronting poverty-related problems arise when poor populations are concentrated in particular areas that have inadequate infrastructure and are vulnerability to natural disasters.
Around 120,000 villages in 832 key counties are listed as poverty-stricken in the poverty alleviation office’s data, and their residents struggle with lack of access to water, electricity, roads, healthcare and education.
Despite such poverty figures, an International Monetary Fund report released last week said the Chinese economy will surpass that of the U.S. by the end of the year - reaching $17.63 trillion compared to the U.S.’s $17.41 trillion economy.
This year China reached 16.48 percent of the world’s purchasing power adjusted GDP – recognized as the best way of comparing national economies - while the U.S. reached 16.28 percent, according to the IMF.
However, the U.S. economy is still bigger than China’s in terms of real GDP with an economic output of $16.8 trillion against China’s $10.4 trillion.
The Global Times report indicates that whereas National Bureau of Statistics data shows China's per capita GDP standing at $6,767 in 2013, that of the U.S. was $53,143 in the same year, according to the World Bank.
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