Poverty risk level in Lithuania among highest in EU: report

Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-17 23:36:09|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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VILNIUS, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The level of poverty risk in Lithuania in 2017 amounted to 22.9 percent and was among the highest in the 28-country European Union, the local organization National Network of Poverty Reduction (NSMOT) announced on Wednesday.

According to the data from NSMOT, based on official statistics, the level of poverty risk increased in Lithuania by 1 percentage point in 2017, compared with 2016.

According to the latest NSMOT data, in 2017 Lithuania saw the highest poverty risk rate since its accession to the European Union.

The level of poverty risk in Lithuania amounted to 307 euros a month per capita in 2017, the NSMOT report reads.

In 2017, the calculations of the level of absolute poverty were renewed in Lithuania. According to the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, the absolute poverty level indicates the amount of income required for the minimum personal supplies of food and non-food good and services.

The level of absolute poverty in Lithuania in 2017, according to the NSMOT, amounted to 238 euros a month for a person living on his own and 500 euros for a family of two adults and two children younger than 14. In 2017, the level of absolute poverty in Lithuania amounted to 13.8 percent, which means that around 390,000 people lived below the absolute poverty line, the report read.

Lithuanian is a small Baltic country with a population of less than 3 million.

Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite said earlier this week that the country's poverty rate is one of the worst in Europe and although Lithuania is not the only European country fighting against poverty, the state should take concrete steps to cut poverty.

17th of October is marked as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty every year throughout the world. The first commemoration of the event took place in Paris, France, in 1987.

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