A recent study by the Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics and a leading economist has shown that the overall percentage of people in Fiji living in poverty has decreased by 10 percent.
While launching the Preliminary report on poverty and income distribution in Fiji in 2008-2009, Professor Warden Narsey said in the years 2002-2003, 35 percent of the country was in poverty however for 2008-2009 there was a marked decrease of 10 percent with the survey showing 31 percent of the people in the country are in poverty.
According to Professor Narsey, one of the contributing factors to this decrease was the continuous support from Government in terms of the Poverty alleviation Resources however, these resources are being misplaced as 43 percent of the poor live in the rural areas compared to only 19 percent in the urban centres.
Professor Narsey said while $152 million was used between 2008-2009 by Government for Poverty alleviation, more focus needs to be on the rural population.
In the report summary, 26 percent of the households in the country live in poverty out of which 37 percent were in the rural areas while only 15 percent lived in the urban areas.
Professor Narsey said an alarming find of the report is that there is a very huge gap between the efforts to address poverty in the urban and rural centers.
Story by: Paradise Tabucala
Study shows decrease in poverty
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