Cambodia’s poverty rate falls to 16.6 pct: UNDP

The poverty rate in Cambodia had declined to 16.6 percent in 2022 from 36.7 percent in 2014, according to a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report on Thursday. “The number of poor people was halved from 5.6 million to 2.8 million,” the report said. “One in five Cambodians moved out of poverty in just 7.5 years.”

Of the 25 subnational regions, 17 had significant reductions in global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) value and incidence of poverty, the report said, adding that the poorest subnational regions, Kratie, and Preah Vihear and Stung Treng provinces, significantly reduced their global MPI value and incidence of poverty the fastest. Incidence of poverty fell from 64.3 percent to 34.6 percent in Preah Vihear and Stung Treng, the report said.

Cambodia has a population of about 17 million people. According to the World Bank, the national poverty line in the Southeast Asian nation is 10,951 riel or 2.7 U.S. dollars per person per day. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said last month that the kingdom is projected to graduate from the least developed country status by 2027.

“I’m very confident that Cambodia will graduate from least developed country status by 2027 at the latest and will achieve our goal of becoming an upper-middle income country in 2030,” he said in a public speech. Xinhua

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