News release: “While least developed countries(1) (LDCs) have weathered the global downturn better than was generally anticipated, they are still trapped in the boom-bust cycles which have long plagued their economies… and their medium-term prospects are a cause for concern, UNCTAD´s Least Developed Countries Report 2010, Towards a new international development architecture for LDCs cautions. The world´s 49 poorest countries must develop their productive capacities — that is, their abilities to efficiently and competitively produce an increasing range of higher value-added goods and services through expanding investment and innovation, the report counsels. Otherwise, they will have difficulty escaping poverty and ending the chronic vulnerabilities. Under current patterns of heavy dependence on exports of primary commodities and low-value-added manufactures, the study contends, even boom periods have done little to improve living standards. Using new poverty figures, the report estimates that the number of people in extreme poverty increased by 3 million per year during the boom years of 2002-2007, reaching an estimated 421 million in 2007 — twice as many as in 1980.