Up to 150 million could join extreme poor, World Bank says

Up to 150 million people could slip into extreme poverty, the World Bank has warned.

In an outlook grimmer than before, it said on Wednesday that by late next year depending on how badly economies shrink during the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people will be living on less than $1.90 (Sh205) a day. 

Middle-income countries are expected to have 82 per cent of the new extreme poor, including India, Nigeria and Indonesia. Many of the new extreme poor will be more educated urban residents, meaning cities will see an increase in the kind of poverty traditionally rooted in rural areas.

Most of the new extreme poor, more than 110 million even by the World Bank’s baseline estimate, will be in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The pandemic has abruptly halted years of progress against global extreme poverty, expected to rise this year for the first time in over two decades. It also threatens to worsen global inequality and make it “harder for countries to return to inclusive growth,” World Bank president David Malpass said.

Global economic growth is expected to fall by 5.2 per cent this year, more than in the past eight decades.

Almost a quarter of the world’s population lives below $3.20 (Sh345) a day, a massive number of people vulnerable to the kind of economic shocks that this year have come in waves. Unemployment is rising, and those who scraped together savings have watched them disappear. Families are eating less. Many children, who account for half of the world’s poor, miss out on distance learning.

“Many of the new poor are likely to be engaged in informal services, construction and manufacturing — the sectors in which economic activity is most affected by lockdowns and other mobility restrictions,” the report says, citing phone surveys in countries around the world.