India's extreme poverty rate declined sharply to 5.3 per cent over a decade from 27.1 per cent in 2011-12 — as the World Bank revised upwards its threshold poverty line to USD 3 per day.

Given India's inflation rate between 2017 and 2021, the revised ‘extreme poverty’ line of USD 3 constitutes a 15 per cent higher threshold than USD 2.15, as expressed in 2021 prices, and results in a 5.3 per cent poverty rate in 2022-23, the World Bank said in a report.

As against 34 crore BPL people being below the USD 3/per day poverty line in 2011-12, the numbers have come down to 7.5 crore in 2022-23 in absolute numbers.

The World Bank announced a major revision to global poverty estimates, raising the International Poverty Line (IPL) from USD 2.15/day (2017 PPP) to USD 3/day (2021 PPP), according to a factsheet issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on the report.

"While the change led to a global increase in the count of extreme poverty by 125 million, India emerged as a statistical outlier in a positive direction. Using , India not only withstood the raised threshold but also demonstrated a massive reduction in poverty," PIB claimed, issuing its factsheet on Saturday, 6 June.

The new poverty line would have increased the count of global extreme poverty by 226 million people. But thanks to India's data revision, the net global increase was only 125 million, as India's revised data reduced the count by 125 million on its own, it claimed.

In India, the World Bank report said, 54,695,832 people lived on less than USD 3 per day in 2024. Thus, the poverty rate at USD 3 per day (2021 PPP, or percentage population) is 5.44 per cent in 2024.

The extreme poverty rate decreased from 16.2 to 2.3 per cent between 2011–12 and 2022–23, while the poverty rate at the lower middle income country (LMIC) line declined by 33.7 percentage points, it said.

Free and subsidised food transfers have supported poverty reduction and the rural–urban poverty gap has narrowed, the statement claimed. The five most populous states account for 54 per cent of the extremely poor, it added.

With regard to the economy, the report said, was around 5 per cent below the pre-pandemic trend level as of FY25.

Growth should gradually converge back to potential over 2027–28, assuming the current global uncertainties are resolved in an orderly fashion, it said.

"The outlook, however, is subject to significant downside risks, as policy shifts may continue to unfold globally. Elevated trade tensions would dampen demand for India's exports and further delay the recovery in investment," it said.

The current account deficit is expected to average around 1.2 per cent of GDP over FY26-28 and remain adequately financed by capital inflows, it said, adding that foreign exchange reserves are projected to remain stable around 16 per cent of GDP.

India has lifted 171 million people from extreme poverty in the decade between 2011–12 and 2022–23, the World Bank said.

"Over the past decade, India has significantly reduced poverty. Extreme poverty (living on less than USD 2.15 per day) fell from 16.2 per cent in 2011-12 to 2.3 per cent in 2022-23, lifting 171 million people above this line, the World Bank had said in its Poverty & Equity Brief on India in April.

The rural extreme poverty dropped from 18.4 per cent to 2.8 per cent, and urban from 10.7 per cent to 1.1 per cent, narrowing the rural–urban gap from 7.7 to 1.7 percentage points, it had said.