Poverty rate continues downward trend to 18.3 percent

Poverty in Laos continues to decline as infrastructure accessibility has improved, particularly road electricity, clean water and sanitation access, according to data from the Lao Consumption and Expenditure Survey in 2018-2019.
Consumption and expenditure of households in Laos have significantly increased, particularly the rise in food consumption and poverty continued to decline, demonstrated by the falling poverty rate, poverty gap and poverty severity.
The poverty rate in Laos has continued to decrease signficantly. In 1992-1993 the rate was at 46 percent and dropped to 39 percent in 1997-1998 and 33.5 percent in 2002-2003.

In 2007-2008 the poverty rate dropped to 27.6 percent, 23.3 percent in 2012-2013, and 18.3 percent in 2018-2019.
Lao Statistics Bureau (LSB) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment organised a meeting on Tuesday to announce the results of the 6th Lao Consumption and Expenditure Survey in 2018-2019. Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, Dr Kikeo Chanthabouly chaired the meeting.
According to the Lao Consumption and Expenditure Survey, the poverty rate in Laos remained at 18.3 percent in 2018-2019 while nominal consumption per household increased by 28.7 percent compared to 2012-2013 (from 2 million kip to 2.6 million kip).
Overall, household consumption and expenditure has increased significantly, with families slowly shifting their rice consumption to other healthy food, and reducing consumption of their own produce to buy food from markets.
Rice still makes up about 31 percent of household food consumed, followed by meat, fish, vegetables and other staples.
Regarding infrastructure access, 93.8 percent of villages have road access in the dry season, an increase from the last survey (76.4 percent). Some 89.5 percent of communities can access electricity which is up from 2012-2013 (76.5 percent).
The survey revealed that 90.7 percent of villages could access clean water while sanitation has improved with only 19.6 percent of the population without toilets.
Some 97.5 percent of the population can access vaccination programmes, 39.3 percent have access to a village pharmacy, and 36.4 percent of villages have certified pharmacies.
According to the Lao Statistics Bureau, the survey has been conducted every five years since 1992-1993. It sampled 636 villages and 10,176 households with interviews taking place over 12 months from June 2018-June 2019.
The objective of the survey is to collect and report information on household consumption and expenditure, production and public services access to support monitoring of the National Socio-economic Development Plan, and particularly to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.
The government supported the survey with technical support from the World Bank.

By Keoviengkhone Bounviseth
(Latest Update July 29, 2020)