Poverty rate drops

28 June 2019
Poverty rate drops
Myanmar farmers work at a paddy field on the outskirts of Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Photo: Hein Htet/EPA

The number of Myanmar people who suffered poverty has registered at 11.8 million, or 24.8 percent of the total population, dropping from 48.2 percent in 2015, Xinhua reported quoting the Myanmar Minister of Planning and Finance.

But, according to a 2017 survey by the Myanmar's Central Statistical Organization (CSO), World Bank and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the poverty rate of rural people in Myanmar stood high, especially those working in farms with no land owned.

The drop was attributed to the amendment of farmland policy, the acquirement of increased investment for enhancing agricultural production through modern technical know-how and the building of rural infrastructures such as education, health, transport and communication, electricity and safe water availability for the rural people's socio-economic development.