The rate of poverty reduction has accelerated in the last five years, according to the governor of the central bank, Atiur Rahman, who quoted as yet unpublished results of the latest household expenditure survey by the official data office, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Poverty declined at an average rate of 2% a year in 2005-10, compared with 1.8% in 2000-05. According to the new figures, the percentage of the population living under the poverty line stood at 30% in 2010, down from 40% in 2005. Without giving details of the methodology that was used in determining Bangladesh's poverty line, officials have attributed the decline to higher economic growth, rising inward remittances and the availability of safety-net programmes. Real GDP growth has accelerated from an average of 5.5% a year in 2000-05 to an annual average of 6.2% in 2005­10. Remittances, meanwhile, have surged from around US$3bn in 2005 to more than an estimated US$10bn, according to the central bank.