COVID-19 crisis: Extreme poverty could rise to over one billion people globally

Researchers in US reportedly said that the economic downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic could affect extra 395 million people and put them in extreme poverty. They added that the crisis could result 1 billion people living on less than $1.90 a day worldwide. The report was published by  UNU-WIDER, part of United Nations University. The report was published assessing and going through a number of scenarios, which includes World Bank's report on various poverty lines featuring from extreme poverty, defined as living on $1.90 a day or less, to higher poverty lines of living on less than $5.50 a day. 

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$500 million per day loss

The report highlighted that over a billion people are living in poverty and a $500 million per day loss of income for the poorest people in the world could soon be reality. It said, "The COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate headlines as the death toll rises and economies falter. However, far too little attention is being given to the worsening crisis in developing countries where coronavirus is spreading rapidly and governments grapple with the devastating economic consequences of prolonged shutdowns and the collapse of world trade. Three-quarters of new cases detected every day are in developing countries."

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The report added that it is likely to trigger immediate and potential permanent increase in global poverty, and the situation could get a lot worse unless governments move faster. In fact, it could set back progress on reducing global poverty and achieving SDG 1 by decades. The report considered a range of impacts based on income or consumption contractions of 5%, 10%, and 20% and found that in addition to the impact on extreme poverty there could be over 500m new poor living under the $3.20 and $5.50 per day poverty lines.

In addition, the report claimed that the intensity and severity of poverty are also likely to be exacerbated too. The daily losses could be in the millions of dollars per day ($2011PPP) among those already living in extreme poverty, and among the group of people newly pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis. 

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Image: AP