Number of poorest states doubles in past 40 years - UN think-tank

PARIS, November 26 (RIA Novosti)

Supachai Panitchpakdi

The number of least developed states (LDCs) has almost doubled in the past 40 years, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its annual report.

UNCTAD head Supachai Panitchpakdi said a total of 49 countries are now considered LDCs, almost twice as many as in 1971, when 25 states had the status. Only two of them - Botswana and Cape Verde - have graduated from LDC status in the past 30 years.

"With rapidly rising populations, the number of people living in extreme poverty in LDCs has continued to increase throughout the past 30 years... and by 2007 it was twice as high as in 1980," UNCTAD head said in his overview to the report.

He said that about 53% of population, or a total of 421 million people, live below the poverty line in the poorest states.

Food import costs of the poorest states grew from over US $9 billion in 2002 to $24 billion in 2008.

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