ADB sets new poverty line for Asia

ISLAMABAD - Asian Development Bank (ADB) has offered new ways to measure poverty in Asia and Pacific and fixed US 1.35 dollars a day as a new poverty line for the region.  

In a report released on Wednesday, the ADB provided a comparable rates of poverty using price data specific to the Asia and Pacific region, and, critically, to the poor. The report describes important methodological issues involved in generating internationally comparable estimates of poverty. “This is a landmark study for two reasons,” says Dr Ifzal Ali, ADB Chief Economist. “For the first time a thorough sensitivity analysis of the internationally comparable poverty estimates has been carried out. Second, a poverty line that is relevant specifically to the Asia and Pacific region has been adopted.”

The new poverty line, called the Asian Poverty Line, is roughly $1.35 a day. A person who earns below than $ 1.35 a day (roughly Rs 102 on current exchange rates) is considered a poor.