22% Brazilians live under poverty line: World Bank

Rio De Janeiro Nov 1 (IANS) The World Bank has said that 22 per cent of Brazilians live under the poverty line.

Categorized as a higher-middle-income country Brazil has around 45.5 million people living on less than $5.5 a day the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper said citing a World Bank report.

It is said that the World Bank changed the way it measured poverty raising the poverty line from $1.9 to $3.2 for lower-middle-income countries and $5.5 for high-middle-income countries Xinhua news agency reported.

According to previous World Bank studies only 8.9 per cent of Brazilians lived under poverty line on less than $1.9 a day.

"Few people live on $1.9 a day in Brazil. But people who are living on $2 are still poor for Brazilian patterns and for higher-middle-income countries " said Francisco Ferreira a World Bank economist.

--IANS
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