poor countries double in number

The number of very poor countries has doubled in the last 30 to 40 years, while the number of people living in extreme poverty has also grown two-fold, Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said.

"What happened is that in the past 30-40 years, the number of least developed countries (LDCs) have doubled so it has actually deteriorated, the number of people living under the poverty line has doubled from the 1980s."

The number of individuals living in extreme poverty "increased by three million per year during the boom years of 2002 and 2007," reaching 421 million people in 2007. The report indicated that the situation has sharply deteriorated in the past few years.

It emphasized that over the past 30 years the existing model of development failed to help rid people out of poverty and cautioned that the situation has sharply worsened in the last few years. It cited dependence of poor countries on imports, very weak improvements in domestic savings and a faster depletion of their natural resources as major factors contributing to the epidemic.

The expenditure for LDC's on food imports rose from 9 billion dollars in 2002 to 23 billion in 2008," said Secretary General of UNCTAD Supachai Panitchpakdi.