Global General

Bolivia cuts extreme poverty by 10 pct in 2010

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-12-24 11:32

LA PAZ - The number of Bolivians living in extreme poverty dropped 10 percent in 2010, and officials envision a 21-percent cut next year.

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"Bolivia reduced extreme poverty from 40 percent to 30 percent (this year), and we hope to reach the millennium goals," Minister of Planning Viviana Caro told a news conference on Thursday. The millennium goals were set by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for substaintially cutting poverty in countries.

Caro said the Bolivian population would increase by some 40 percent in 10 years if it grows at an annual rate of more than 3 percent, which makes it both important and difficult to reduce poverty in absolute terms.

"The millennium goal is to cut poverty by half, based on poverty levels measured in the year 2000. This means that we have to reach 20 percent, and we hope to reach a 21-percent (decrease) by 2011," she said.

According to Alicia Barcena, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Bolivia is among four countries which have made real progress in fighting poverty in this decade. But more than half of Bolivians are still living in poverty.