Bhutan: Poverty Analysis (Summary)

1. Recent progress in poverty reduction. Bhutan has achieved remarkable socioeconomic progress and poverty reduction on the back of robust economic growth and the government’s efforts to improve the living standards of the country’s people. Poverty incidence declined from 31.7% in 2003 to 23.2% in 2007 and 12.0% in 2012 (Table 1). The reduction was particularly significant during 2007–2012, when the poverty rate was almost halved. This is comparable to the recent advances on poverty of other high-performing developing member countries of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), such as the People’s Republic of China and Viet Nam.