ABJECT POVERTY TO REMAIN CONSTANT IN 2020 – WORLD BANK
The number of people living in abject poverty is expected to remain constant this year, and persist in 2021, due to the economic effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Bank.
The World Bank said on Monday that the pandemic could drive between 70 and 100 million into abject poverty as the global economy faces its worst recession in 80 years.
However, Nations with the highest shares of extremely poor people are not projected to grow faster than their population, which means abject poverty will remain at the level it is this year, and into 2021.
The Washington-based organisation said Nigeria, India and the Democratic Republic of Congo are home to more than one-third of the world’s poor people. These countries are predicted to have per capita growth rates in real GDP of –0.8 percent, 2.1 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
The bank revealed South Asia may record an exponential increase in the number of poor people as a result of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic particularly in India.
According to the World Bank, of the 176 million people expected to be pushed below the $3.20 per-day poverty line, two-thirds are in South Asia.
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