World Bank's Jim Kim global slowdown harm anti-poverty drive

More structural reforms are needed to lift global growth above forecast 3% and raise living standards of 1bn living in extreme poverty, says president

The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, has warned that a slowdown in growth across the developing world is a threat to the organisations's project of reducing poverty. Kim said a fall in global growth to around 3% this year will make it more difficult to raise the living standards of the 1 billion people who still live in extreme poverty. "We must now re-examine our strategies to lift the final billion out of poverty and into the modern world," he said.

The warning came during the World Bank's spring meeting in Washington DC, where the 188-member organisation struggle to show that its efforts in the last year have borne fruit.