Zuraida said the report prepared by UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston could be a yardstick to help her ministry formulate programmes for the poor.

She said if the poverty rate was indeed higher as stated in the report, her ministry must work harder.

“However, if the rate is lower, it will be good as we won’t have to allocate a lot of money for this group,” she told reporters yesterday as quoted by Bernama.

Alston had questioned the Malaysian government’s statistics on poverty, saying they do not reflect the reality on the ground.

He said the poverty rate in Malaysia was 15% and not 0.4% as officially claimed.

Azmin however defended Malaysia’s poverty rate, saying it is derived from internationally accepted standards based on the Canberra Group Handbook on Household Income Statistics published by the UN.