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Why Asia is probably poorer than we think: Asia’s ‘success’ in reducing poverty uses a flawed system for measuring income and ignores food insecurity

by Jayati Ghosh

The first target of the first millennium development goal (MDG) is to halve extreme poverty. It has been interpreted in terms of income poverty alone, relying on counting people living below the arbitrary global poverty line of $1.25 per day. According to this measure, there has been a global reduction of income poverty that indicates the target has already been met.

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