Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda has said that economic recovery in Asia will ensure that developing economies will be able to reduce high poverty incidence in the region.
He pointed out that the global economic crisis may have negated recent gains in poverty reduction, with the Asia's GDP slowing to 4.5 percent in 2009, compared with the 6.1 percent GDP growth posted in 2008.
He said that latest estimates suggest that had the region's high growth rate continued in 2009, there would have been at least 53 million fewer people living in extreme poverty, or on less than US$1.25 a day, in Asia.
But he noted that this is just a "temporary phenomenon," given that developing Asian economies are now leading the recovery from the global meltdown.
Kuroda said that this recovery will also lead to a reduction in poverty incidence in the region. He added that the recovery will also ensure that developing Asian economies will achieve their Millennium Development Goals, including that of reducing the poverty level by half in 2015.
But he noted that poverty reduction "will not be sustained at the pace of pre-crisis years, unless sources of growth are rebalanced more toward domestic and regional demand, and made more inclusive."