Planet's poorest countries falling further behind: UN

The planet's poorest countries are falling further behind the rest of the world and cannot catch up without more aid and favourable trade deals, a UN report said today. 

UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its annual report said during 45 years since the United Nations created its list of Least Developed Countries (LDC), only four have graduated from the impoverished group that are Botswana,



Cape Verde, Maldives and Samoa.The report said efforts to boost economic development in the remaining 48 LDCs have been glacial. Nearly half of the global poor- currently defined as people living on less than USD 1.90 per day- live in the 48 most impoverished countries.

The current list of least developed countries includes 34 African nations, nine in Asia, four in the Pacific region as well as Haiti.