CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) — About 40 percent or 140 million Arab citizens live below the poverty line, a report by Arab League (AL) and UN Development Program (UNDP) said Sunday.

According to the report themed “the challenges of development in the Arab countries”, the average rate of poverty in Arab countries reaches 40 percent as the past 20 years witnessed an increase in poverty rates in some Arab countries.

“Despite high rates of economic growth in the Arab region since 2000, overall poverty rate is still high at about 40 percent on the average, which means that nearly 140 million Arabs live below the poverty line,” the report said.

The challenge facing Arab countries, according to the report, is not limited to the need “to achieve high growth but to transform the growth faster and more effectively to reduce poverty through effective policies to redistribute income.”

“The proportion of young people of the total unemployed represents more than 50 percent for most Arab countries, making the unemployment rate among young people in Arab nations the highest in the world,” the report added.