It was announced at the working conference on poverty alleviation and development held by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that, as required by the objective of building a well-off society in an all-round way by 2020 and in order to adapt to the situation that China’s poverty alleviation and development has entered a new stage, the CPC Central Committee decided to raise the poverty threshold to 2,300 yuan (at constant prices of 2010) as the new national poverty line. Learning such a move taken by the Chinese government, World Bank experts gave a very positive appraisal.

Dr. Chen Shaohua, a senior statistician responsible for global poverty measurement in the Development Economics Research Group of the World Bank commented, “The Chinese government has just raised the national poverty threshold to 2,300 yuan/year based on 2010 prices, a 92% increase from the standard set in 2009, and equivalent to US$1.8/day if converted to the US dollar at 2005 PPP (purchasing power parity) prices. China’s new poverty line is close to the median of that of the low- and middle-income countries. In line with the new poverty threshold, it is estimated that the proportion of poor population with a per capita net income of less than US$1.8/day ranged between 12% and 15% in 2008. The figure was definitely much lower in 2010, but we don’t have the latest data for measurement or calculation. It implies that the central government will make more efforts to serve the poverty-stricken population, who will benefit more from economic growth,” Dr. Chen also indicated, “It is the most exciting news for me during over 20 years of working in the World Bank.”

Dr. Wang Yan, Senior Economist at the World Bank Institute remarked, “China has made a great progress in poverty line adjustment, demonstrating that China’s policies will be more pro-poor, and the impoverished people will obtain more financial support.”