BEIJING - THE number of Chinese eligible for special poor relief will triple to more than 43 million after the government raises the official poverty line from 2009, state media reported on Tuesday.

Currently 14.8 million Chinese are considered to earn below the poverty line, set at 785 yuan (S$166) a year, but that number will soar once the government hikes the threshold to about 1,100 yuan, the China Daily said.

The poverty line is the minimum level of income considered by the government to be necessary to obtain enough basic goods and services to subsist.

Raising the poverty line means that more people will be covered by China's poverty relief schemes, according to the report.

The central government has a budget of 16.7 billion yuan for relief programmes this year, 2.3 billion yuan more than last year, it said.

That figure could rise next year, and not just because more people will be officially living in poverty.

Migrant workers who are laid off and forced to return home amid the economic slowdown could slip back into poverty, the report said.

China first announced a poverty line in 1985, with people making less than 200 yuan a year deemed to be living in poverty, and it has increased the threshold gradually since then.

The China Daily said more than 200 million people across the country had been lifted out of poverty since 1978. -- AFP