The National Aid Fund (NAF) on Sunday dismissed figures recently published by some media outlets on the poverty rate in the Kingdom and said the "figures lack accuracy, and have been marred by many fallacies, distortion of terms and were taken out of the historical context in which they were put".

In a statement to Petra, NAF Director-General Omar Mashaqbeh said the fund has not published any data or a joint study with the World Bank relating to poverty indicators in the Kingdom.

He explained that the figures disseminated yesterday by some media outlets are more than 12 years old, dating back to 2008 specifically, adding that the figures had been cited by the World Bank in the context of historical readings of poverty rates and lines in the Kingdom.

"These ratios do not reflect the current reality", Mashaqbeh stressed, noting that the Department of Statistics is the only body authorized to publish data on the national poverty rate and thresholds.

//Petra// AA