International poverty estimates for countries in Africa commonly rely on national consumer price indexes to adjust … implications for estimated poverty trends. The results suggest that in 11 of 16 Sub-Saharan African countries in this study …, poverty reduction may be understated because of consumer price index bias. With correction of consumer price index bias …

countries as a whole have had pro-poor growth. One-third of the poor population escaped poverty during the studied period, which … is larger than the proportion of the population that fell into poverty in the same period. The region also saw a 9 … percent reduction in poverty and a 28 percent increase in the size of the middle class. However, chronic poverty remains high …