Since the establishment of the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1993, the number of people living on less than $0.50 a day has been reduced from 47 percent of the population to 35 percent, the World Bank announced Thursday.
The World Bank made the announcement at the launch of its East Asian Update report.
Though the UN definition of a person living in extreme poverty is someone who lives on less than $1 per day, World Bank Country Manager Nisha Agrawal said the $0.50 indicator provides a more accurate assessment of poverty, because Cambodians need $0.50 per day to meet their basic needs.
The World Bank based its assessment on an unofficial 2004 Socio-Economic Survey conducted by the government.
The 2004 survey results also led the World Bank to estimate that the number of Cambodians living on the equivalent of $1 a day had plummeted to 18.4 percent.
In April, the World Bank estimated that 42 percent of the population was surviving on the equivalent of $1 per day, based on its own estimates and previous government data.
“This is very, very good news for Cambodia,” Agrawal said at a
