Left and Right in Global Politics

living in absolute poverty, that is, with an income of $1 per day or
less, declined from 1.5 billion in 1981 to 1.1 billion in 2001.^17
The magnitude of this success is even more striking when translated
into relative terms. In barely twenty years, the proportion of people
living in extreme poverty in developing countries dropped by almost
half, from 40 to 21 percent of the global population (Figure3.1).^18 In
China and South Asia, the effects of economic growth have been quite
simply spectacular, if one considers that in these two regions alone
more than 500 million people have been able to escape from poverty.^19
The recent reduction in poverty has been accompanied by all manner
of positive spin-offs, but two of them are especially noteworthy. First,

Sub-Saharan Africa

South Asia

China

East Asia

and Pacific

Latin America and Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa Europe and Central Asia

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2001

Figure 3.1Share of people living on less than $1 a day (% of population),
1981–2001
Source:World Bank,World Bank Development Indicators 2004, Washington, DC,
World Bank, 2004, p.1 (www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2004/worldview.htm).

(^17) World Bank, “Global Poverty down by Half since 1981 but Progress Uneven as
Economic Growth Eludes Many Countries,” Washington, DC, World Bank,
2004 (http://web.worldbank.org/ WBSITE/ EXTERNAL/ NEWS/0,, content
MDK:20194973~menuPK: 34463~pagePK:64003015~piPK:
64003012~theSitePK:4607,00.html).
(^18) Ibid. (^19) Ibid.
Two tales of globalization 61