Egypt’s Minister of Economic Development, Othman Mohamed Othman, said that the government managed to cut down abject poverty rates to 20 percent over the past few years, when the average of an individual’s spending was lower than US$1.25 per day.
Othman’s statements were delivered yesterday during a celebration of the issuing of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) report. The event was attended by James W. Rawly, the UN’s representative in Egypt.
“The new report will mark an end to the unjustified misunderstanding of poverty rates," said the minister, saying that poverty rates were down to less than half what they were in the nineties. Othman also said that Upper Egypt remains the most underdeveloped and requires intensive efforts for development by the government.
However, earlier this year, the government announced that the poverty rate in 2010 jumped to 23.4 percent, up from 20 percent the previous year.
In Egypt, the poverty rate has persisted despite the growth in other economic indicators such as the gross domestic product (GDP). The issue has prompted constant questioning of subsidies policies, which haven’t translated directly into poverty reduction.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
