CHANGSHA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 1.31 million people were lifted out of poverty last year in central China's Hunan Province, local authorities said Friday.

At a poverty-relief work meeting held on Friday, the provincial government said 428,000 people from 17 impoverished counties shook off poverty in 2018.

So far, 31 out of the 51 impoverished counties in Hunan have been lifted out of poverty.

Statistics showed Hunan has helped more than 6.8 million people living in poverty shake off poverty, and the poverty headcount ratio of the province has dropped from 13.4 percent to 1.5 percent since 2013.

The battle against poverty is one of the "three tough battles" that the country must win to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. To achieve the goal, China needs to lift around 30 million poor rural residents out of poverty between 2018 and 2020.