Rising food costs and vulnerability to natural and man-made crises are not adequately taken into account when measuring extreme poverty in Asia, dpa cited a regional report as saying Wednesday. Adjusting for these factors could derail Asia's efforts to eradicate official extreme poverty by 2030, the Asian Development Bank said in an annual report on key economic indicators. "In 2030, the number of extremely poor could still be 708.43 million, or 17.1 per cent of the region's population," under the suggested new calculation, up from the currently projected 1.4 per cent, it said. Extreme poverty is currently measured as living on less than 1.25 dollars a day. By that count, the rate fell from 54.7 per cent of the population in 1990 to 20.7 per cent in 2010 amid strong economic growth in the region. If trends continue, it would fall to 2.5 per cent by 2025 and 1.4 per cent by 2030. Poverty below 3 per cent is interpreted as eradicated, the Manila-based bank said.
