The World Bank announced that as many as 150 million people would fall into extreme poverty by 2021, due to the economic effect of the pandemic.
This was disclosed by the World Bank on Wednesday. The bank also said that 8 out of every 10 persons that fall into extreme poverty will be from middle-income countries.
Recall Nairametrics reported in June that the World Bank said the COVID-19 pandemic could add as many as 5 million Nigerians into the extreme poverty bracket.
The World Bank says today that global extreme poverty is going to rise in 2020, the first time in over 20 years due to the effects of the pandemic, which would expand climate change and conflicts around the world, factors that were already slowing down the reduction of poverty.
World Bank says the 88-115 will fall into extreme poverty by 2020 and will rise to 150 million by 2021 depending on the severity of the economic dip.
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Extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 a day, is likely to affect between 9.1% and 9.4% of the world’s population in 2020. The bank says if there was no COVID-19 the rate was expected to fall by 7.9% in 2020.
Most of the new poor will come from countries with already rates of poverty, adding that the 82% of the total will come from middle-income nations.
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World Bank President David Malpass said, “The pandemic and global recession may cause over 1.4% of the world’s population to fall into extreme poverty. In order to reverse this serious setback to development progress and poverty reduction, countries will need to prepare for a different economy post-COVID, by allowing capital, labor, skills, and innovation to move into new businesses and sectors. World Bank Group support—across IBRD, IDA, IFC and MIGA—will help developing countries resume growth and respond to the health, social, and economic impacts of COVID-19 as they work toward a sustainable and inclusive recovery.”
