India Reduced Poverty By Record Levels But 45% Of Pakistan's Population Is Poor, Reveals World Bank

News18

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In an assessment earlier this April, the World Bank said 1.9 million additional people fell into poverty in 2024-25 in Pakistan
India has brought a record number of people out of poverty as per the World Bank, but the latter's latest projection on Pakistan says nearly 45 per cent of its population lives in poverty, while 16.5 per cent lives in extreme poverty.
This is after a World Bank revision of the threshold poverty line last week. In an assessment earlier this April, the World Bank had said 1.9 million additional people fell into poverty in 2024-25 in Pakistan.
India has been making a case before the IMF and the World Bank that Pakistan has been misusing global aid for the purposes of terrorism against India. The World Bank data could be further used by India to raise strong doubts on how Pakistan has been using global aid from agencies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the purported benefit of its common people.
India's extreme poverty rate declined sharply to 5.3 per cent over a decade from 27.1 per cent in 2011-12, even as the World Bank has revised upwards its threshold poverty line to $3 per day. India has lifted 171 million people from extreme poverty in the decade between 2011-12 and 2022-23, as per the World Bank.
The World Bank report on Pakistan in April said the country's 2.6 per cent economic growth 'remains insufficient to reduce poverty". The poverty rate is estimated to stand at 42.4 per cent (US$3.65/day 2017 PPP) in FY25 in Pakistan, 'virtually unchanged from last year", the report said.
'With population growing at nearly 2 per cent annually, this translates to 1.9 million additional people falling into poverty this year," the report said.
The World Bank also said the agriculture sector faces significant challenges in Pakistan as in 2025, weather conditions deteriorated with a 40 per cent reduction in rainfall, alongside pest attacks and shifting production choices.
'Crop yields are projected to decline, ranging from 29.6 per cent for cotton to 1.2 per cent for rice, limiting sectoral growth to under 2 per cent," the report says.
With India putting the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, water flow to Pakistan's Punjab has also been severely affected, which could also put agriculture yield in Pakistan under severe stress.
CNN-News18 had reported on Sunday that Pakistan's official data shows a 15 per cent drop in water flow in the Indus Water Basin in Punjab with the Dams Level at many Pakistani dams nearing the dead level.
'With agriculture employing approximately half of the working poor, rural poverty is expected to rise slightly (0.2 percentage points), while real incomes for agricultural workers are projected to fall 0.7 per cent in FY25. Food security concerns loom large, with an estimated 10 million people at risk of acute food insecurity in rural areas," the report says.
The report said the consumption-based inequality in Pakistan has climbed nearly 2 points since FY21, holding steady just below 32 over the past year. 'However, actual inequality is likely higher since surveys typically underrepresent wealthy households. Additionally, external factors such as evolving global trade dynamics, could influence the pace of economic recovery and subsequent progress on poverty reduction."
First Published:
June 09, 2025, 08:12 IST