China has achieved a complete victory over poverty - Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a "complete victory" in the fight against poverty in rural areas of the country. The Chinese leader's statement was made at a ceremony in Beijing dedicated to the state's achievements in eradicating poverty during Xi Jinping's 8-year term in office.

According to the head of China, the last 98.99 million people in impoverished rural areas have climbed out of poverty. In addition, all 832 counties and 128 thousand villages were excluded from the list of areas where they live below the poverty line.

Since the beginning of reforms in the late 1970s, 770 million people in rural areas have overcome poverty, if calculated according to the current threshold, the Chinese president said.

To achieve its goals, China has set a very convenient threshold beyond which extreme poverty begins, writes Reuters. In rural areas, those whose annual income is less than $620, or about $1.69 a day (at the rate of February 25), are considered below the poverty line. For comparison, the World Bank sets the threshold for extreme poverty at $1.9 a day.

In total, China has spent about 1.6 trillion yuan (nearly $246 billion) on poverty alleviation over the past 8 years, Xi Jinping said, but did not disclose how much the state plans to allocate for these purposes further.

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for the first time in more than 20 years in 2020, Extreme poverty will rise amid the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to World Bank analysts. Below the line may be from 88 to 150 million people.