Poverty Reduction

China beat its annual target by lifting 12.4 million people out of poverty in 2016, official data showed on February 28.

“The progress was partly due to large financial resources, over 230 billion yuan ($34.33 billion), earmarked by the central and local budgets,” said Su Guoxia, spokesperson for the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

“More than 30 million poor people from over 900 counties benefited from these investments,” Su added.

Financial institutions also issued 818.1 billion yuan ($119 billion) in loans to aid the anti-poverty drive last year, and outstanding loans now total 2.49 trillion yuan ($362 billion). About 8.01 million households have received micro-credit worth 283.3 billion yuan ($41 billion) altogether.

Su said more financial resources would be added in 2017 to ensure the government meets its annual target of bringing 10 million people out of poverty.

China has vowed to eradicate poverty by 2020 and become a “moderately prosperous society.”

To meet this goal, 10 million people should become selfsufficient each year from 2016 to 2020.

By the end of 2016, there were 45 million impoverished people, many living in areas without roads, clean drinking water or power.