Poverty Trends in Bangladesh during the 1990s

Analysis of data from various Bangladesh Household Expenditure Surveys suggests considerable progress at poverty reduction during the 1990s. About 50 percent of the country’s population lived below the poverty line in 2000 compared to 59 percent in 1991–2. Poverty in rural areas continues to be higher than in urban areas, but the gap between rural and urban areas has narrowed as rural growth has been relatively more propoor. While the survey data and National Accounts show similar amounts of progress in Bangladesh over the decade as a whole, they present conflicting pictures of the pattern of growth over the decade: the National Accounts series indicate progress to have taken place at roughly equal rates over the first and second halves of the 1990s, while the HES series show most of the progress at poverty reduction to have taken place during the first half of the decade.