WORLD BANK: BELARUS HAS FEWEST POOR PEOPLE IN CIS

MOSCOW, March 4, 2004. (RIA Novosti correspondent) - Belarus has the lowest number of poor people among the CIS countries, the Belarussian Embassy in Moscow informed RIA Novosti on Thursday quoting the data of the World Bank.

Belarus holds 85th place in the world for its poverty level. The share of its population that lives below the poverty line is 22 percent.

Russia holds 52nd place.

Armenia and Kyrgyzstan share 21st-23rd places on the list, with 55 percent of their population living below the poverty line.

Georgia holds 24th place with 54 percent, Ukraine, 73rd with approximately 29 percent and Kazakhstan, 77th with 26 percent.

Moldova and Tajikistan, alongside Zambia, Chad, Haiti and Liberia are among the poorest countries, with 80 percent of their population living below the poverty line.

On the whole, 41.9 percent of the world's population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

In the USA this figure is 13 percent, in Great Britain 17 percent.