LAGOS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's poverty rate stands at 40.09 percent, representing 82.9 million persons, according to official data released on Monday.
Urban poverty rate stood at 18.04 percent, while the rural poverty rate is estimated at 52.1 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in its 2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria report.
According to the report, the national poverty line is calculated by consumption expenditures. Any Nigerian who has real per capita expenditures below 137,430 Naira (about 381 U.S. dollars) per year is considered poor by national standards.
The data however, excludes the restive northeast state of Borno, which has been ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency for over a decade.
The NBS, together with the World Bank, used the Nigerian Living Standards Survey to measure poverty and living standards between September 2018 and October 2019.
As the largest oil producer in Africa, Nigeria depends heavily on oil exports for national revenue and foreign exchanges.
Local observers have warned that with the recent sharp fall in oil prices, compounded by the ravage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's economy will probably slide into recession. Enditem
