KATHMANDU, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- More than 20 percent of Nepal's population was living below the poverty line, although the South Asian country had brought down the poverty rate in the last 12 years, the government said on Monday.
The fourth Nepal living standards survey 2022-23 report released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed that 20.27 percent of the population lived below the poverty line in 2023.
As per a 2021 census, Nepal's population stood at 29.16 million.
"We had expected to bring down the population below the poverty line to 15 percent, which could not be achieved," Toyam Raya, chief statistician at the NSO, said here.
Addressing a press meeting, Raya blamed the deadly earthquake in 2015 and the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 for "achievements less than expected."
According to the NSO, the portion of the population living below the poverty line was calculated based on whether a person spent a minimum of 1.9 U.S. dollars per day for daily essentials.
Nepal had managed to cut down the poverty rate from 25.16 percent in 2011.
"Poverty alleviation efforts of the government and other stakeholders, rise in wages and rising inflow of remittances were mainly responsible for the decline in the poverty rate," said NSO spokesperson Hemraj Regmi. ■
