World-class poverty
世界级贫困
Feb 27th 2013, 9:35 by S.C. | HONG KONG
WHEN is 6.3 yuan worth more than $1.25? If you can answer that riddle, you can avoid widespread confusion about China’s poverty line. You can also appreciate a rare example of China’s government being treated unfairly by its own mouthpiece, Xinhua.
6.3元人民币什么时候比1.25美元更值钱？如果你能回答这一谜题，你就不会对中国的贫困线困惑不解，你也可以欣赏难得的一次中国政府受到其喉舌-新华社的不公平对待。
China’s poverty line is set at 6.3 yuan a day. Yesterday the State Council announced that 98.99m rural folk (or 10.2% of the total) fell below that line in 2012. That was 23.39m fewer than the year before, a remarkable rate of progress.
中国贫困线定为每天6.3元的生活标准。国务院昨天称，2012年中国有9899万(占全国人口的10.2%)农村人口的生活标准低于贫困线，同比上一年减少2339万人，这是一个显著的进步。
But in reporting this good news, Xinhua, the official news agency, felt compelled to point out that China’s poverty line of 6.3 yuan a day was unusually stingy by world standards: But the current poverty line, which is equivalent to just 1 U.S. dollars a day, is still lower than the World Bank poverty line of 1.25 U.S. dollars a day.
但是官方新闻机构-新华社在报道这则好消息时不得不指出：与世界标准相比，中国每天6.3元的贫困线标准显得异常的低。目前相当于每天1美元的贫困线标准依然低于世界银行所定的每天1.25美元的贫困线标准。
Here Xinhua is being unfair. Even though 6.3 yuan is now worth only $1 on the foreign-exchange markets, China’s poverty line is in fact considerably higher than the World Bank’s standard. A detailed explanation of this paradox can be found in this post on Free exchange, where the real nerds reside. A simpler version follows. Prices differ a lot over time and between places. For example, 6.3 yuan stretches much further in rural China, where things are cheap, than $1 stretches in America. By the same token, 6.3 yuan stretched further in 2010 than it does today, because inflation has taken a bite out of the yuan’s value in the past couple of years.
新华社的说法并不公平。尽管现在6.3元在外汇市场上的市值仅值一美元，事实上，中国的贫困线要比世界银行所定的标准高出许多。这似非而是的观点在“自由外汇专题（经济板块）”刊登的内容上有详细的解释，该专题也不乏那些在细节上“穷追死揪”之人。其简要观点如下：价格随时间和地区的不同而变化幅度很大。例如，6.3元在物价低廉的中国农村要比1美元在美国值钱得多。同样地，6.3元在2010年要比现在值钱，因为过去几年的通货膨胀使得人民币贬值了。
To correct for these price differences, the World Bank’s poverty line is designed to hold purchasing power constant across space and time. It reflects what $1.25 could buy in one place (America) at one time (2005). According to the Bank, therefore, you are poor if you consume less than what $1.25 could have bought in America eight years ago.
为了校正这种价格差异，世界银行的贫困线标准旨在体现不随时间和地理位置变化的购买力。它反映出1.25美元在某时（2005年）某地（美国）的购买力。根据世界银行的标准，如果你每天消费的东西少于八年前在美国用1.25美元能够买到的东西，说明你是穷人。
According to China’s poverty line, by contrast, you are poor if you earn less than what 6.3 yuan could have purchased in rural China in 2010. It turns out that 6.3 yuan spent in that part of China at that time could buy about as much as $1.83 in America in 2005. Therefore China’s poverty line is significantly more generous than the World Bank’s standard. And Xinhua could, in this rare instance, be a little more generous to its government.
相比之下，按照中国的贫困线标准，如果你的日收入低于2010年6.3元在中国农村的购买力水平，那就算贫穷。因此，2010年6.3元在中国农村购买力与2005年1.83美元在美国的购买力相当。因此中国的贫困线标准远高于世界银行的标准。新华社本可以在这难得的一次中对其政府更有雅量一些。