China says over 12 mn people lifted out of poverty last year

China has lifted 12.4 million people out of poverty last year, a senior official said.
"The progress was partly due to large financial resources, amounting to more than 230 billion yuan (USD 34.33 billion), earmarked by the central and local budgets," Su Guoxia, spokesperson with the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development said.
"More than 30 million poor people from more than 900 counties benefited from these resources," Su was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency last night.
China's financial institutions issued 818.1 billion yuan of loans to aid the anti-poverty drive, and outstanding loans now stand at 2.49 trillion yuan.

About 8.01 million households have received micro-credit, worth a total of 283.3 billion yuan.
Su said that more financial resources would be added to tackle poverty this year to ensure the government met its annual target to reduce poverty by 10 million people.

In 2015, the Chinese government identified 70.17 million people in the countryside living below the poverty line of 2,300 yuan (USD 376) in annual income at the end of last year.
China has vowed to eradicate poverty by 2020.
To meet this goal, China has to lift 10 million people out of poverty each year from 2016 to 2020.

To accomplish this, China announced plans to relocate 3.4 million people from poverty-stricken communities to more developed areas this year as part of its poverty reduction drive.