A\u00a0new World Bank study\u00a0on poverty and shared prosperity says that extreme poverty worldwide continues to fall despite the lethargic state of the global economy. But it warns that given projected growth trends, reducing high inequality may be a necessary component to reaching the world\u2019s goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.<\/p>\n
According to the inaugural edition of\u00a0Poverty and Shared Prosperity<\/em>\u2014a new series that will report on the latest and most accurate estimates and trends in global poverty and shared prosperity annually\u2014nearly 800 million people lived on less than US $ 1.90 a day in 2013. That is around 100 million fewer extremely poor people than in 2012. Progress on extreme poverty was driven mainly by East Asia and Pacific, especially China and Indonesia, and by India. Half of the world\u2019s extreme poor now live in Sub-Saharan Africa, and another third live in South Asia.<\/p>\n In 60 out of the 83 countries covered by the new report to track shared prosperity, average incomes went up for people living in the bottom 40 percent of their countries between 2008 and 2013, despite the financial crisis. Importantly, these countries represent 67 percent of the world\u2019s population. (estimated 4.5 billion people)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n