People move on a street in Phnom Penh capital of Cambodia on November 17, 2021. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) ThengPagnathun, director general of planning at the Ministry of Planning, told apress briefing on July 29 that the poverty rate declined by 1.6 percentagepoints annually during the last decade, driven substantially by rising wage and earnings.
Hesaid the decrease is in line with the Government's commitment to reducing atleast 1% of the poverty rate each year.
Cambodia'sCOVID-19 cash transfer programme, launched in June 2020, has significantlybenefited some 2.8 million people from 707,000 poor and vulnerable householdsso far, he noted.
Citing aUnited Nations Development Programme report on Cambodia released on July27, the official said the programme has helped bring down Cambodia's povertyrate over the last two years.
According tothe World Bank, the national poverty line in this Southeast Asian nation is10,951 riel, or 2.7 USD a day. Under the new poverty line, about 18% of thepopulation is identified as poor.
Poverty ratesvary considerably by area. The poverty rate is the lowest in the capital PhnomPenh at 4.2%, in other urban areas at 12.6%, and the highest in rural areas at22.8%, the bank said./.
VNA
