The World Bank is to make the most dramatic change to its global poverty line for 25 years — raising its measure by a half to about $1.90 per day — in a move likely to swell the statistical ranks of the world’s poor by tens of millions.

世界银行(World Bank)将对其全球贫困线标准做出25年来最大幅度的调整——贫困线标准将从每日生活费1.25美元上调一半，至每日生活费约1.90美元。此举很可能会导致全球统计意义上的贫困人口增加数千万人。

The move from $1.25 would be the biggest revision since the World Bank introduced its $1 a day yardstick of global poverty in 1990.

这将是自1990年世行推出每日生活费1美元的全球贫困线标准以来最大幅度的一次调整。

The bank is expected to follow the event by shifting its poverty line to about $1.90 ahead of its annual meetings in Lima, Peru, in early October — a move likely to result in significant shifts in the estimated size and distribution of the planet’s poor.

预计世行将在10月初的秘鲁利马年会前夕做出这一调整，此举可能导致全球贫困人口的估计规模及分布发生巨大改变。

It is difficult to predict exactly how many more people will be defined as poor. However, when researchers at the bank tested a notional poverty line of $1.92 earlier this year, it led to a surge of 148m.

现在很难精确预测按照新标准全球被定义为贫困人口的人将增加多少。然而，在世行研究人员今年早些时候测试1.92美元的名义贫困线时，贫困人口激增了1.48亿。

Most of the difference came in east Asia where the ranks of those falling below the poverty line almost doubled from 157m at the old $1.25/day measure to 293m. In Latin America, the result was an increase of 8m, or more than 25 per cent, in the number of poor to 37m, while in south Asia the ranks of the poor grew by 7m to 407m. Under that line, sub-Saharan Africa remained steady at some 416m.

增加的贫困人口主要来自东亚。如果贫困线标准从每日生活费1.25美元调整到每日1.92美元，东亚生活在贫困线以下的人口将从1.57亿增加近一倍，达到2.93亿。在拉美，贫困人口将增加800万，至3700万，增幅超过25%。在南亚，贫困人口将增加700万，至4.07亿。撒哈拉以南非洲的贫困人口数量不会有什么变化，仍为大约4.16亿。

In an interview with the Financial Times, Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank president, said the decision to adjust the poverty line was a necessary update due to new data on purchasing power. The new line, he said, had been “very well vetted” by the bank’s poverty experts.

在接受英国《金融时报》采访时，世行行长金墉(Jim Yong Kim)表示，根据最新的购买力数据，调整贫困线的决定是必要的。他表示，新的标准经过了该行反贫困专家“非常认真的审查”。