[Pakistan] WB validates govt’s poverty estimates

from The Daily Times

The World Bank has validated the Government of Pakistan's official poverty estimates as recently published in the Pakistan Economic Survey, 2005-06, says a WB statement issued Thursday.

“The Government has maintained consistency with past measures using the same poverty line and inflation indices as used for the 2000-01 estimates," the Bank statement said.

Using this same methodology, it added, "the latest Government estimates show poverty to have fallen from 34.4 percent to 24 percent."

"Several international agencies, including the World Bank have validated this result independently."

"It is clear that poverty has indeed fallen sharply between 2000-01 and

2004-05. Of course, there are other ways to calculate poverty estimates useful for analytical purposes but using the same methodology for the official estimates is important to maintain comparability over years," said John Wall, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.

“These most recent estimations have pointed out weaknesses in the inflation indices used in the calculations, which should be strengthened over time," the statement added. APP