Poverty below 5%, urban-rural gap reducing: SBI Research

Sharp Decline In Rural Numbers

- FE BUREAU

INDIA'S POVERTY FELL sharply from close to 22% in 2011-12 to well under 5% in 2023-24, with almost minimal incidence of extreme poverty and a shrinking of urban-rural gap, researchers at the State Bank of India (SBI) have said.

Citing the results of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24 released last week, SBI group chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh said that based on fractile distribution, rural poverty plunged from 25.7% in 2011-12 to 7.2% in 2022-23 to 4.86% in 2023-24. Urban poverty declined from 4.6% in 2022-23 to 4.09% in 2023-24.

"At an aggregate level, we believe poverty rates in India could now be in the range of 4-4.5% with almost minimal existence of extreme poverty," noted Ghosh. In 2011-12, the poverty rate was 21.9% and in 2004-05, it was 37.2%.